The Throat Ripper
by endorphins
Summary: Someone is killing the teenagers living in Seattle. At first his victims are random, but then he chooses a specific victims, whose death will shock the half of country... What will he do and will his victims survive? Creddiam friendship, multi-chap.
1. Prologue

**A/N: Hey guys! This is the first time when I'm publishing a multi-chap story here and to be honest, I'm nervous. Well, I'm always nervous while publishing a new story...**

**I've almost finished writing this story. It won't be very long, a prologue, eleven chapters and a epilogue. I won't say, what is this story about, I don't want to spoiler. But for sure you think it'll be about iCarlies - and, of course, you're right. ;) A story takes place in Seattle, so there are appearing names of real places or streets; I've never been in Seattle, but I've been helping myself with Google Maps, so I hope there won't be any mistakes. I also hope you'll enjoy this story. :) Reviews are very, _very_ welcomed. :)**

* * *

**Prologue**

He follows her, since she has come out from Westlake Center, carrying two large bags with bought stuff. What did she bought? Clothes, shoes, purses? He likes to think about his girls' lifestories, what they like to do in their freetime, what music they listen to. _His girls_, that's how he calls them, although usually he doesn't speak to them. There are boys too, he must admit it, althought meetings with them are a little less nice. However, after them he feels fulfilled almost on the same level. He likes quick actions instead of long foreplay.

He likes to look into his victims' eyes, when the life comes out of them.

The girl probably lives in Capitol Hill, because she goes across Volunteer Park. It's dark already, after 10 p.m., and the girls goes alone across deserted park. Foolishly.

He runs up to her without any sound, like a wild animal on a hunting. Violently grabs her arms and turns her around. For a while she looks at him with wide-opened eyes. Her eyes are amazing, a colour of dark honey, surrounded by long eyelashes. He covers her mouth by hand, before she will be able to make any sound. He has been doing it so many times that he knows victims' reactions perfectly; he knows that he has got that few-seconds advantage, before surprised victim screams.

He drags her to the nearly bushes. The girl yanks, but she is too weak to manage to beat him. Her desperated attempt to escape makes him excited even more, he loves to feel under his hands body's in a trap desperated moves . But it is nothing comparing with a great final...

A knife flitters in his hand and a little moment later he immerses it in the girl's larynx. She grunts wildly and droops, a blood squirts from her throat and it stains a ground they stand on. He grabs the girl's jaw and turns her face to himself, looks deeply at her beatiful, honey eyes, which becomes turbid more and more. There is a euphory and triumph inside him, as always he looks at the life coming out from his victims. He barely refrains from laughing, which is gathering in his throat.

The girl yanks last one time, but she already knows she won't escape. This one, well directed hit knocks her down, she is nocauted. He looks at her eyes until the very end, when the last jot of life comes out her body. Her eyes become cold and empty, and he is fulfilled. Panting, he throws the girl's body on the ground supine to make wide cut on her throat more noticeable. For a long moment he enjoys looking at the girl with honey eyes, which freezed in fear and then, without any voice again, he runs away to her.

Murdering someone makes him very happy as usual, but this time he feels a little insatiable... Random victims become too easy. He needs something more, something more difficult, he wants to raise a bar. And then an idea comes to his mind. Yes, it would be difficult, but it would shock all Seattle and maybe even more than Seattle... A sly smile appears on his face, when he is running back to his hideout.


	2. Chapter One

**A/N: Thank you guys for such a nice reviews for the prologue! The Volcanologist, jimbo84 and green aura - you're amazing, I'm really appreciate your reviews! :) So here we go with Chapter One; I hope all of you will like it.**

**Oh, and there's a little thing I forgot to say earlier - the story takes place while Season 4, after 'iGot a Hot Room', but before 'iOMG'.**

**PS I'm sorry that in the menu by the right side the previous chapter is named 'Chapter 1', when it's only the prologue. I really don't know how to change it (I'm retarted ._.).**

* * *

**Chapter One**

"And in the end of today's webcast," announces Carly, looking into the camera, "we're gonna do a little experiment. I've got a big piece of ham over here," She waves the meat in front of the camera, "and over here I've got Sam." Now the camera is directing on the co-host, who with delighted face looks at ham holding by Carly. "Now Sam's gonna leave the studio and I'm gonna hide this meat somewhere inside this room!"

Sam comes out of the attic and turns back to door and Carly, outside camera range, looks around the room and hides the meat under one of car seats, which are standing over here.

"Okay," she says, directing the camera at herself, "I hid this ham in a certain place and now Sam doesn't now, where is it." She points at car seats, smiling slyly. "Now Sam will be supposed to find it. Come here, Puckett!" she yells.

Sam runs into the attic and starts sniffing like a dog. She looks around the room, checks few places and after almost thirty seconds she looks under car seats and pulls the meat out. She hugs it in euphory.

"Twenty six seconds!" yells Carly, jumping ahead the camera. "It's your new record."

"Mama will always find her kiddos," states her fried and bites the ham.

"And it's all today," Carly says. "We're seeing in this same time and this same place next week. Make you socks right..."

"...and look for a ham!" adds Sam with full mouth.

"And... we're clear," says Freddie as usual, turning the camera off. The three give each other high-fives. "You two were amazing."

"Yeah, I liked it too," says Carly.

"I was afraid that I wouldn't find this ham," Sam admits, still holding the meat in her arms. "I had no idea, where you could hide it!"

"You managed, you know your little things." Her friend pats her on her back friendly. "It was trustworthy at least. Hey, wanna get some smoothies?"

Sam and Freddie agree and they comes down to the living room, where sits Spencer focused on evening TV news.

"Hey, what do you think about today's show?" asks him Carly.

"Yeah, it was great, shh," he shuts her up, waving a remote held in a hand.

"Don't 'shh' on me," Carly resents and along with Freddie and Sam sits down on the couch. "What are you so involved in?"

Spencer doesn't answer, just turns up the volume. On screen there is the news presenter, a dark-skinned woman with short cut hair. She seems very serious. "Another, the fifth serial murderer's victim is Amber Michaels." In the window next to woman appears a photo of around seventeen-year-old girl with light-brown hair and eye-catching amber eyes.

"He's not caught yet?" asks Freddie, frowning.

"What is this 'serial murderer'?" Carly makes air quote by her fingers and rolls her eyes, underestimating it. Freddie, Spencer and Sam looks at her, amazed.

"You haven't heard about it?" Sam asks, raising her eyebrows. "All Seattle is talking about it. For last two weeks some psycho has killed five people."

"The police still isn't hot on his trail," adds Spencer.

"I've heard something about it," says Carly, "but Seattle is a big city, after all, there can be no serial murderer, people are just getting crazy..."

"Every victim is killed by stabbing in throat. They bleed out quickly and die," says her Freddie. "The victims are mostly teenagers, people around our age. It seems that there is a serial murderer."

"I can't believe it." Carly shrugs. "Are we going to Groovy Smoothie or not?"

Sam and Freddie get up from the couch and then they come into the elevator, which drives them down to the hall. They're keeping quite for a moment and then the silence is broken by text jingiel, which came on Carly's phone.

"Strange..." she mutters, reading the text. "The unknown sender."

"Did he write anything suspicious?" Freddie asks.

"_Cool webcast_, only this." Carly shrugs and hides the phone in her pocket. "Until he sends nice texts, I won't care. Hey, what's wrong with you, guys?" She looks at her friends, anxious. They are still dreary and taciturn. Freddie and Sam exchange quick gazes.

"It's nothing big," Sam says, not looking at Carly. "Just... It's about that girl who has been murdered. It's a little bit worrisome if someone kills fifth person in two weeks, especially they are around our age."

"Are you really gonna be worried about it? I think they're just unhappy accidents."

"Five people in two weeks? All in this same age?" Freddie raises his eyebrows. "Come on, Carly. There's a psycho in Seattle who's killing teenagers, it's not a reason to be happy."

Carly only shrugs and doesn't answer. Sam and Freddie seems really worried, but Carly doesn't care so much. A vision of serial murderer is unrealistic for her, it can't be about her. She thinks her friends are overreacting. Television news may be false, media can do alot to make people panicked.

However, she feels strange, unexplained anxiety. What, if all these rumors are real? If in Seattle there is a serial teenagers' killer? Theoretically, she can be his victim... Freddie's beaten by Sam groan of pain snatches her from thoughts. She sighs slightly and separates her friends.

* * *

"I'm home!" Carly yells as she comes into the apartment. She hangs her jacket on the hanger and takes shoes off. "What?" she asks when she notices that Spencer dragged from his sculpture away and looks at her attentively. "What?!" she repeats, irritated a little, when her brother is still keeping quiet.

"Nothing," he says finally. "You just... came home lately."

"It's only half past nine, after the show I always come home this time and it has never bothered you." Carly frowns. "What's the matter?"

"I wish you coming home before it gets dark."

"Spence, I'm sixteen, if you don't remember. Oooh, I already know, what do you mean..." She sighs slighly. "It's about that guy, who's supposedly killing people? You think he could do something bad to me?" she irritates.

"Not 'supposedly', he's really murdering people, it's real. Thus, just come home before nightfall, just in case and to not make me worried, okay?"

"If you care so much, fine," agrees Carly, resigned. "Don't let yourself get crazy," she says when leaving and goes to her bedroom. At first Sam and Freddie, now Spencer too... Why everyone is so panicking? Even if a serial murderer is prowling in Seattle, why everyone immediately bets that she or anyone from her inner circle could be the next victim? There are tons of teenagers in Seattle...

Making herself to be ready to take a bath, she pulls out of pocket her PearPhone. She realized she has got six unread text messages, which she didn't hear in Groovy Smoothie.

_Really cool webcast._

_I'm a huge fan of iCarly._

_I can't wait to next show!_

_I wish to meet you._

_You're fascinating me._

_You're hot._

Carly raises her eyebrows in a surprising. She gets used to recognition by iCarly and sometimes there's someone who sends few strange texts, but no one never has sent her so many texts and from unknown sender. But Carly doesn't think it something dangerous and only puts her phone on the desk, and then she comes out to the bathroom.

* * *

On the Monday morning Ridgeway High School looks like any other high schools all around the world - it is sleepy and lifeless, and sleepy students prowl around through the hallways, half-conscious. Sam after exceptionally boring History lesson reaches to her locker, where Freddie waits, as usual ready to swallow the next piece of knowledge. _Nerd_, thinks Sam contemptuously. She opens her locker and takes from there a sandwich with a ham, and then looks at Freddie and sees an anxious on his face.

"What's up, Freedo?" asks Sam nastily and bites a big piece of her sandwich.

"Have you seen Carly today?" Freddie frowns.

"Nah, we hadn't a lesson together. You two always go to the school together, so why you're talking to me that-"

"We didn't go to the school together today," Freddie cuts her off. "In the morning I came to pick her up as always, but nobody opened the door. Spencer usually sleeps until a noon and surely he didn't hear it, but Carly would open, so she has to go to the school earlier."

"Maybe she overslept." Sam shrugs and then looks at the point above Freddie. "Oh, here's your loss!"

Freddie turns back and notices Carly, who cames down from the first floor. She is clearly sleepy, there are dark circles under her eyes, outstanding from her pale face. Carly comes up to her locker and hides the Maths book there.

"What's with you? You're so messed," Sam asks, looking at Carly with a little smile.

"Remember when we went to the Groovy Smoothie after the show, in Saturday and I got that strange text?" asks Carly by trembling voice and Sam and Freddie nod. "When I came home, there were six new and then someone was sending me strange messages all night. I turned my phone off at Sunday noon. Someone is down on me!" she states, frightened and accolades herself.

"Check your phone," advises Sam consciously. Carly looks at her with doubt, but her friend doesn't step down. "Come on, check it! It won't eat you, after all."

Carly, still doubtfull, takes the phone from her locker and turns it on. Surprised, raises her eyebrows. "Strange," she says quietly, looking at the screen. "Since I has turned phone off, I didn't get any new messages."

"See?" Sam patted her on arm calmingly. "I'm sure some jerk thought he would scary you, and then he got bored and stopped."

"He scared me a bit," admits Carly quietly.

"You can't show it," says Sam with a reprimand in her voice. "You have to be strong, sure?" Carly nods and then they hear the ringbell. "Okay, I'm going on P.E., see ya while lunch." She goes toward a gymnastic hall.

"Come, Carly," says Freddie softly seeing his friend still upset. Together they go to the classroom where are English lessons.

Carly is relieved that someone, who was sending her these messages, stopped already, although she still remembers an anxious, which was with her through all weekend. Messages didn't sounds dangerous, most of them were about Carly and her beauty, however it was the most disquieting in them. _Someone got bored and doesn't send you these texts anymore_, she calms herself down and sighs slightly, trying to smile.

English is Carly's favourite lesson, thus she relaxes quickly, focusing on things saying by the teacher. In a half of lesson, she's almost calmed down, when she feels vibrating phone in a pocket. Making herself sure that the teacher is turned back to students, she draws out the phone and hides it in the pencil case. She reads a text and she fades.

_You thought it was end? It's only the beggining._

Sender: unknown.

Scared Carly looks around the classroom, but everybody looks same as a while ago, focused on lesson and nothing has changed. She looks at the phone's screen, hoping it's only a delusion, but no - a message is still visible and it's still the same. She feels someone looks at her and she turns back, feared, but it's only concerned Freddie, who sits by her right side.

"What's going on?" she asks noiselessly.

"Again," Carly replies, moving her mouth silently. Freddie frowns, he doesn't understand. "A-gain," repeats Carly slower and clearly.

"Got any problem, Miss Shay?" Suddenly, she hears crude teacher's voice. She turns to him, scared. It seems that any sudden noise will scary her now. "And you're using a mobile phone while lesson? You're working on a detention."

"I'm sorry, professor," says Carly humbly and throws her phone in backpack. Teacher looks at her for a moment and then he backs to the lesson.

Carly can't focuse anymore. Teacher's words come into her head and after a moment come out, pushed out by one spine-chilling thought: _It's only the beggining_. Who is the man who sends her this kind of messages? What is his purpose? She feels anxious again.

When the ringbell sounds, Carly almost runs out of the classroom as first. She goes hurriedly to her locker, like it would be the only place, where she feels safe. In the midway Freddie catches her up and grabs her arm, making her stop. "What happened?" he asks. Carly draws her phone out of the backpack and shoves in Freddie's face.

"Look," she says with breaking voice and her friend reads, frowning.

"_It's only a beggining_..." he repeats. "It's disquieting, Carly."

"You don't say?" she asks meanly, but it's because of her fear. "You're right, the fact that somebody persecutes me, is pretty disquieting." They're next to the Carly's locker. She throws her phone inside.

"Don't worry," says Freddie softly. "Let's meet tommorow after school and I'll try to locate a guy who's sending these texts."

"Could you?" Carly asks, hopefully.

"Dunno, but I can try. If we locate him, Sam will get tough with him." Freddie smiles to her comforting, what calms Carly down.

In a certain moment they notice Sam in her training suit, who's running toward them, keeping her PearPhone in a hand. She runs up to them, breathless. Carly and Freddie look at her, amazed and Sam, panting hardly, shows them the phone's screen. Carly grabs it.

"_Carly will need a new co-host for the webcast soon_. From unknown sender," she reads and then looks at her friends with opened mouth. "I also received a text on a lesson, this unknown sender wrote to me, that 'it's only a beginning'..."

"He's going to torment all of us," says Sam angrily and to a confirm her words, from Freddie's pocket beeps an incoming message.


	3. Chapter Two

**A/N: So here we go with Chapter Two! I hope you're ready. :)**

**green aura - at first, thanks for such a comprehensive review! I know that Spencer is a little bit OOC (out of character) here, but I did it intentionally - I just want to make him more mature and responsible than usual. If this story was a comedy, everybody would be more funny, but it isn't. So yeah, we can say that iCarlies (but Spencer mostly, I have to admit it) are a little bit OOC in my story. By the way, I think if in a city there's a serial murderer, everyone wants to know, what's going on and they're watching TV news, even Spencer. ;)**

**Thank you guys for _all_ the reviews! I'm really surprised that so much people read my scribble. :) I'm really glad you like it and I hope you'll like it all the time, because that's why I'm publishing it. Have fun while reading! :)**

* * *

**Chapter Two**

"Okay, let's try to find him," Freddie says, sitting down to the computer in the living room of Shay's loft. The girls are sitting on the couch. Each of them has received three messages with a threats so far.

"If I get this freak who's spamming my mailbox, I'll break his head off," announces Sam vindictively. Carly doesn't respond, she's just staring blankly ahead. "Hey, don't worry," Sam pokes her with her feet, "we're gonna find this guy and kick his ass."

"I don't like this situation," Carly says. "A lot of maniacs are watching _iCarly_, but no one has never tormented us by threats. Maybe we should call the police?" she wonders, but Sam spins her head. She's the last person, who will agree to go to the police station voluntarily, because it's very possible that she won't come back.

For a few next minutes all of them are quiet, the silence is interupted only by fast typing in a keyboard.

"Holy crap," mutters Freddie, still typing. "I can't trace him."

"Come on, Techdumb, use your head!" urges him Sam.

"It's not so easy, when I don't have his phone number," he says, turning around to the girls. "I was trying by different ways, but every time there was nothing, no response."

Before anyone manages to say anything, they hear the sounds of incoming message coming from the Carly's phone. All of them get numb and stare at the phone.

"Read it," says Sam quietly after a while. Carly grabs her PearPhone.

"_Freddie is right, I can't be located_," she reads with a breaking voice. The friends look at each other with anxious, even Sam seems to be uncertain. "How did he know? Maybe there's some bugging?" She looks around the flat, like she would expected to see a sign falling out from a corner.

"Okay, so let's think, who may do it, because I've got a feeling that this person is someone who we know," Freddie says. "Any ideas?"

"Nora," says Sam immediately.

"No, Nora's in a jail." Freddie spins his head.

"Mandy?" Carly suggest, but now Sam denies.

"Mandy is nutty, but not so much nutty," she says. "I mean, she was obsessed about us, but she didn't want to hurt us."

The friends are thinking for a long moment. Then they see the light.

"Nevel," they say at the same time.

"It's him, for sure!" Sam knocks her fist on her hand. "Let's blast him! Carly, do you have any butter in the fridge?"

"I have to do my homework and write an essay on History today," Freddie says, before Carly manages to say anything.

"Besides, it's dark outside and I promised Spencer I wouldn't go out after nightfall," Carly adds and Sam moans, irritated. "We'll go to Nevel tommorow, right after school and make him stop sending these stupid texts. Sam, you can get you buttersock ready." Her friend throws her fist up in the air triumphantly. "Nevel pushed us to the limit this time."

"Okay," agrees Freddie. "But... what will we do with our phones?"

"Just turn them off," Carly orders.

"If so..." Freddie turns his phone off and hides it in the pocket. "If we're sure that it's Nevel... Because it's him, right?"

"Yeah," Sam nods. "He's the only person who wants to destroy _iCarly_ and every time he plays more and more dirty, so messages with threatens fits him.

"I wonder about one thing..." Carly frowns. "How Nevel got our phone numbers?"

"I think it's not a big problem for Nevel, he could just blink some people we know out of them for a few bucks." Freddie shrugs. "Anyway, if we stated that Nevel it's the one who sends our these texts and tommorow after lessons we'll go to his house, I'm coming to mine."

"Yeah, me too," Sam mutters and grabs her backpack. "See you tommorow in school."

"Sure, see ya." Carly walks with them to the door and then she backs to the kitchen to pour herself some juice. She's still nervous and anxious. She's mad at Nevel, how he could play so dirty? That fits him, tormenting them, but why use he so sophisticated threatens? Earlier times he wanted to harm _iCarly_, but not them personally, he always attacked their webpage or a webcast, but never the creators. Does Nevel want to go one step further, hurt them? But what can he do? He's strong in the Internet, but in a real life he's only the fourteen-year-old boy, he couldn't hurt them, especially they've got Sam by their side.

_Tomorrow everything will be clear_, she thinks and drinks the juice. She tries not to worry anymore, but an anxious is still gathering like a fresh snow on the floor.

* * *

"But we're totally sure it's him?" doubts Carly, when the next day they're standing on 5th West Avenue in Queen Anne, where Nevel lives.

"Yeah, because who else?" answers Sam by a question.

"Let's turn on our phones," Freddie says and they reach their PearPhones from pockets. After turning them on the friends see that no one got any new text from unknown sender. They look at each other doubtfully. "Maybe he wanted to dull our vigilance."

"Anyway, let's go and kick this slimy worm's ass," Sam says rebelliously and with Freddie and Carly comes onto a porch of Pappermans' house. Carly knocks on a door and after a while Nevel's mother opens it. She's got red, swollen eyes, blowzy hair and on her cheeks there are shiny tears traces. Carly, Sam and Freddie exchange quick, surprised looks.

"Good afternoon," says Carly uncertainly. "Can we talk to Nevel?"

When Mrs. Papperman hears her son's name, she can't refrain herself and burns into tears. The friends exchange amazed gazes again. They're disoriented.

"Excuse me?" asks Freddie hesitantly. "Is everything okay?"

"Nevel, he..." Nevel's mother stammers, wiping the tears from eyes. "You can't talk to him, I'm sorry."

"It's very important," says Carly. "There's very important thing we have to talk about to him. Is he home?" Mrs. Papperman just spins her head. "Where can we find him? It's really important..."

"Nevel was murdered tonight. Go away," says Mrs. Papperman surprisingly firmly voice and closes the door right ahead of their noses. Behind them they hear her sudden sob.

They stand on the porch for a long moment, looking blankly ahead, with mouths open from amaze. Finally Sam as first comes out this stupor and shakes her head, looking at Carly and Freddie, who blink quickly few times, returning to the reality. The friends in a silence leave the porch and go toward the tram stop. They're too shocked to say anything, they still can't believe in Mrs. Papperman's words. It starts to rain, but they don't notice it, they see tearful face of Nevel's mother all the time.

Riding by a tram to the Bushwell Plaza, they still don't talking to each other. When they get to the elevator, which takes them to the eighth floor, finally Sam sighs deeply.

"Holy shit," she says. "Can you get it?"

Freddie and Carly only spin their heads. In silence they reach to eighth floor and comes in Carly's apartment. Spencer is in the living room, working at his sculpture and listening to the news from the turned on TV at the same time.

"Hey," he says and the friends utter a murmurs, which has to be a greeting. "Have you guys heard about the new victim? It's that Nevil, who-"

"We know," Carly cuts him off, not looking at him. "We already know. We'll be in my bedroom."

When they're in Carly's place, finally the accumulated emotions pass for them like a air from pierced baloon. The friends fall on the seats around water table with the little ship.

"I can't believe it," says Carly hollow.

"Nevel's mother didn't look like she was lying." Sam looks straight ahead. "She said Nevel had been murdered tonight and for sure that psycho who's wandering Seattle and murdering the teenagers, did it."

"If Nevel... is dead," Carly says with breaking voice, "so he's not the one who was sending us those messages."

"We can't be sure," says Freddie above his phone. "Carly got the last text yesterday around six o'clock, when Nevel probably was alive, so it could be him. His death and our texts may be not linked."

"But if they are?" Sam asks suddenly and in her eyes appears the anxious. "Look - Carly was receiving those strange texts as first, but when she was turning off her phone, they suddenly ceased. When she turned it on, she received them again, as if someone knew, when she was turning it on and off. Then we started to receive them, but again, when we turned our phones off, they ceased. Nevel was here just few weeks ago, when we were helping him, after he had yelled at that little girl, he was here! He could imperceptibly bugged our phones or something like that... It was him, I'm sure!"

"It's a coincidence," says Freddie quietly. "Tragic, but still a coincidence. Nobody else would do this kind of thing towards us."

"Crap..." Carly sighs slightly. "We hated Nevel, but, after all, we didn't wish him death. In spite of all, it's sad that... hapenned to him, what happened," she ends whispering.

"Maybe we should broadcast some quick _iCarly_ and tell the viewers about it?" Freddie suggests and Sam and Carly nods gloomily. "At first I'll check, what are they writing about it." He sits down by a computer and opens _The Seattle Times' _website. There's a big, white and black Nevel's photo and a big lettering informing about his death. Freddie clicks on the link and after a while the fresh article appears. "_The creator of one of the most popular webpages on the West Coast became the next, sixth victim of serial killer operating in Seattle and called The Throat Ripper. The body of fourteen-year-old Nevel Papperman was found by a young women walking a dog..._"

"So it's real..." Carly whispers rather to herself than to her friends. "Okay, let's broadcast this _iCarly_, we should do it."

"I'll tweet about it and you two go and get ready," says Freddie and Carly and Sam goes to the studio.

"What are we gonna tell them?" Sam asks.

"We'll just inform about Nevel's death and say we're very sorry, something like this," Carly answers and in this same moment Freddie comes into the studio with a serious face.

"I've never thought we would do _iCarly_ in this kind of mood," Sam says with disbelief.

"I would prefer not to experience this," Carly mutters. "Are you ready, Freddie?" she says to the boy, who's setting up technical parameters.

"Yes," he responds, grabbing the camera. "In five, four, three, two..." By a gesture he shows the girls they're broadcasting. Carly and Sam smiles faintly to the camera.

"Hi, I'm Sam..."

"...and I'm Carly, and this is..."

"..._iCarly_," they finish together, but in their voices there aren't this spontaneity and full of happiness as usual.

"For sure you're wondering, why are we doing the show so suddenly," Carly says.

"And why are we so serious," adds Sam. "But it's still _iCarly_ and this episode is special."

"Today we learnt out about a tragic Nevel Papperman's death, the owner of Nevelocity." Carly stops for a moment, searching for a property words. "I think you know we rivaled with Nevel, but we're very sorry about hearing, what has happened with him. We're sending our condolences to Nevel's family and, to memorialize him, at next Saturday we're not broadcasting _iCarly_."

The girls end a little moment later and Freddie turns off the camera.

"Why did you say that we wouldn't do _iCarly_?" asks Sam. "We've never canceled the show."

"And never someone from people we know hasn't been murdered," replies Carly. "I think it would be improper, if we had fun while doing the show few days after Nevel's death."

They go to the living room. Spencer isn't here, but TV is still turned on. The friends sit down on the couch and for a long moment look at screen, but they don't focus on a program.

"What a horrid day," says Carly finally.

"You mean last few day," corrects her Sam. "At first these texts, now Nevel... Suckish."

"But it has ended already," Freddie comforts her. "In few days everything's gonna be alright again."

"Hope so," say the girls at once.


	4. Chapter Three

**A/N: Once again, thank you for a reviews! It's a big pleasure to read them. :)**

** MegColes - no, Spencer is not dead, why did you think like that? As far he's a minor character in this story, so he doesn't appear in every chapter, but in the next chapters there will be more Spencer, I promise. ;) To answer your question - this story's going to have eleven chapters (I'm not sure about an epilogue). The killer would appear personally in Chapter Seven, I suppose.**

** green aura - when I was writing this chapter I hesitated about Nevel, but well... it just happened. ;) To be honest, I've never liked him a lot. ;)**

**Okay, let's go with Chapter Three! It's rather short, but Chapter Four will be definitely longer. Have fun while reading. :)**

* * *

**Chapter Three**

"I'm home!" Carly yells, when she comes into the apartment along with Sam. It's Saturday evening and they're should doing _iCarly now_, but they canceled the show and decided to spend this afternoon in a mall. "Spence?" Carly looks around the flat, but Spencer is nowhere. "It's strange... Would he left the door not blocked?"

"Maybe he just forgot. You know, this is an artist thing." Sam shrugs and goes toward the fridge. "Hey, you promised to borrow me the Biology book, remember?" she says with a sausage stamped on a fork. "I have to write an essay."

"Really?" Carly looks at her with raised eyebrows.

"Henning said I would repeat a year if I don't write it, so it's do-or-die thing." Sam shrugs again.

"I left it in the studio, I'll bring it," Carly says and goes upstairs. When she enters the studio, she gets numb. For a long while she stands, motionless.

The studio is completely devastated. It looks like a tornado came across, all the props are destroyed or overturned.

"Sam..." utters Carly quietly. "Sam, come here!" she yells and after a moment her friend shows up in the studio. When she sees, what it looks like, she's also get amazed.

"What the...?" she asks and gets onwards the studio, looking around with disbelief.

"Look at the TV," Carly says, covers her mouth by a hand and points at the screen. Sam looks over there too and she notices a red letters on the screen: _I'll do the same with you_.

"It looks similar, when those pitiable petographers destroyed our studio," says Sam vindictively.

"Bring Freddie." Carly is still shocked, while her friend is getting mad. She runs out from the studio and Carly carefully walks between heap of things on the floor. Apparently someone broke in their apartment and destroyed the studio... But how he did it? Where's Spencer and why didn't he notice anything?

She notices a piece of paper pinned to the pin board, where they note their ideas. It jumps out, because the pin board is the only thing, which hasn't been destroyed and there's nothing except a piece of paper folded in half. What is stranger, Carly doesn't remember it being here earlier. She grabs it and spreads.

_Don't tell anybody, otherwise the people you care about, would get hurt._

"Oh geez..." Freddie with wide-opened eyes looks around the studio. "Geez..." he repeats, as if it could change anything. "Who could do it?"

"Good question, Freddork," says Sam ironically. "Who could do it? Well, we're sure it wasn't Nevel." Freddie looks at her reproachfully, but the girl just shrugs. "Maybe those petographers did it? It's so like them."

"No, they don't have any reason to harm us." Freddie spins his head. "Okay, I'm calling the police."

"Don't do this," Carly says, surprisingly certainly and firmly.

"Why?" Freddie raises his eyebrows.

"Even I think we should call the cops," agrees Sam.

"We can't." Carly gives him the sheet. They read together, leaned above it.

"_Don't tell anybody, otherwise the people you care about, would get hurt_? What is this shit?" asks Sam, frowning. "So, you think that someone who broke in here, left it, right?" she adds, when Freddie and Carly look at her, anxious. "Come on, just call the cops." She waves her arm contemptuously.

"Maybe you don't care about anybody, but Carly and me do," answers Freddie sharply and Sam looks hurt for a fraction of second, but this expression fastly disappears from her face. "Look at the facts! Someone has broken in Carly's loft, destroyed our studio, written on the screen he would do the same with us and, in addition, he prohibits us to do anyone, otherwise someone would get hurt... That's not a joke, Sam!"

"Okay, calm down," holds the pass offended Sam. "I just thought that after Nevel it's over."

"Apparently it's not," Freddie says. "So... Nevel wasn't the one who was sending us those messages."

The girls look at him, there's a flat calm between the friends. Just few minutes ago they were sure that texts with threatens was only a nasty accident and they almost forgot about it. Now it's returning, filling their hearts with anxiety.

"Hey, isn't it suspicious," says Carly quietly, concerned, "that when we were receiving texts and we came up to the idea it could be Nevel, he suddenly get killed? I think it's more than coincidence."

Freddie and Sam look at her, frightened.

"Nevel was killed by this serial murderer," says the boy slowly. "And if... if it all is his fault? If Nevel's death wasn't an accident?"

They all keep in silence. They're scared to say loud, what slowly they started to realise.

"Come on, guys." Sam suddenly bursts out laughing. "It's ridiculous. 'Cause hey, will we stand here and think that some serial killer wants to kill us too, yep?"

"Texts with threatens, devastated studio... If average _iCarly_'s fan would be able to do something like this?" wonders Freddie.

"Maybe it's some ultrapsychofan." Sam rolls her eyes.

Before anybody says anything, through the opened window (to make it stranger, Carly remembers she had closed it, before she left) a rock wrapped in sheet of paper falls inside and lands on the floor loudly. The friends look at each other, surprised, and then Sam picks up the rock. She untucks the paper and reads loudly: "_I'm the one you think I am. Choose the option, which is the scariest for you - it's me_. What the yuck?" She raises her eyebrows, disoriented.

Freddie runs up to the window, pops head out and looks around. He hopes he would find someone who tossed this message (although he's got no idea how someone was able to do it, Freddie thinks only it could be only the Spiderman), but he doesn't see anybody. So who dropped this rock to the studio?

"_You think I am_..." repeats Carly, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "We thought it was Nevel, but it can't be him..."

"We thought it was _iCarly_'s psychofan," adds Sam.

"We thought it was a serial killer," says Freddie gloomily, turning around from the window and coming up to the girls.

"_Choose the option, which is the scariest for you - it's me_," Sam reads.

"For me the scariest option is a serial killer," states Freddie.

"For me too," Carly adds, peeping at him behind the hair, which covered her face.

For a moment they keep in silence and look at each other with a dread. They realise a frightfully truth - they don't want it, but they know it's true - their persecutor owns up.

They're the next victims on his list.

* * *

"Okay, what are we gonna do?" asks Sam two hours later, when - after cleaning up the studio - they're sitting in the living room. They're tired, but they were working hard to make nobody notice the damage in the studio. Now it looks like before. "Let's recap the situation - in Seattle there is psychopatic killer, who chose us as his next goal. Well, it doesn't sound very optimistic." Sam puts hands in her pockets. She tries to make it all funny, but in real she's very nervous. "I think we should call the cops, they have to finally find this freak."

"We can't," denies Carly. "He wrote that if we tell anybody, he would hurt our... loved ones. We can't allow this to happen." She winces slightly.

"Carly's right, we have to do it on our own," Freddie throws in.

"How the hell you wanna do it?" Sam gets angry. "We're just three sixteens, we'll never defeat a man, who's got no scruple to kill us! So what, we have to meet up and fight with him, like in movies?"

"No, it makes no sense," says Freddie. "Maybe let's just... stay in line. Let's be always in a crowd, don't leave our houses with no reason and if we need to, let's walk the most crowded streets, don't go out in a evening. He won't attack us on a street full of people in the middle of a day, right?"

"I think he won't give up," says worried Carly. "But if we're cautious..."

"His previous victims were dying, because he was attacking their suddenly," Freddie says. "We've got an advantage, because we're more informed, so if we're cautious, he won't attack us and maybe the police would catch him."

Carly nods, but Sam still seems to be dissatisfied. Suddenly someone loudly and violently pounds in the door. Carly, Freddie and Sam jumps from fear and before Carly opens the door, panicked Mrs. Benson shoots inside.

"Freddie!" she yells, scared. "You were supposed to come home seven minutes ago! Do you even know, how much I was worried?! How could you did this for me, well knowing that in Seattle there is a serial murderer? I thought you're already dead!"

The boy tries to explain. "Mom, come off it, we just-"

"We're coming home, now!" cuts him off his mother. "Why are you so disheveled, what were you doing?!" She smoothes his shirt and Freddie frowns, disgusting. "You're going to take a double bath tonight."

"But mom..." moans Freddie, but Mrs. Benson doesn't listen to him and frogmarches him out of the apartment. When the door closes behind them, Sam and Carly giggle at the same time.

"Okay, I'm gonna come home too," says Sam a little moment later, grabbing her jacket.

"Sam, you can't!" Carly springs to her feet. "Don't you hear, what did Freddie tell a while ago? It's dark already and we have to stay in line... Stay here tonight, don't back home."

"I have to. I promised my mother I would smear a salve in her stretch marks," she says, wrinkling.

"Gross," states Carly.

"You don't have to tell me this." Sam zips her jacket and seeing Carly's worried face, she adds, "Don't worry, Carls, I'll cautious like never before in my life."

"I'll order you a cab," Carly offers.

"Come it off," Sam stops her. "I'll manage, it's not so late. I'll get in a tram and a lit, crowded streets lead me to home, I promise."

"Okay," agrees Carly reluctantly. "But call me right after you'll get to home."

"Sure thing," says Sam and comes out a moment later.


	5. Chapter Four

**A/N: And hello again! How are you, guys? :) But before the chapter...**

**MegColes, Kyle McShade, green aura - thanks for the reviews, of course. :) You don't have to worry about Sam... so far. **

**Okay, so let's go with Chapter Four! It's the longest chapter so far and I hope you'll enjoy reading it. Have fun and leave some reviews, it'll make me happy. :)**

* * *

**Chapter Four**

"Well, we look quite good, given that we're people with a death penalty, right?" states Sam cheerfully, when on Monday after Maths lesson she sits down by one of tables in the canteen.

"Sam, you shouldn't say it so loud," reprimands her Carly. "No one must know," she adds after a while, but her friend only shrugs.

"Have you seen Techdumb today?" she asks and bites her sandwich.

"He had P.E., I think he'll get here in a moment," says Carly unconsciously. Suddenly she notices an uproar around one of tables. She sees a fair-haired girl from lower class, who's crying violently. There are a bunch of student around her, who's trying to comfort her. "Hey, what's going on there?"

"Where?" Sam turns around and also notices a shindy. "Isn't it Nicole, Wendy's sister? Oh gosh, she's crying so hard."

"I haven't seen Wendy today," remembers Carly. "I'm curious, what happened."

"I'm gonna tell you, what happened." Freddie appears by their table, pale from nervousness. He sits down next to Carly and for a moment looks at his food, but then then he pushes it away, like he changed his mind and concluded he's not hungry. "It's about Wendy."

"What about her?" asks Carly. "I haven't seen her today."

"You couldn't see her," Freddie says. "Wendy got murdered tonight, her body was found today's morning. And that girl who's crying, it's Nicole, her sister."

"Oh my God..." utters Carly, amazed. Even Sam stops to eat. "The next person who we know."

"Notice that this psycho's killing the more and more close to us people," says Freddie seriously. "At first Nevel, Wendy now..."

"So what, we're next?" Sam asks.

"He's holding us at the gunpoint all the time, but we're watching out and he can't get us," answers Freddie. "Until we don't surrender, he may murder the more and more close to us people..." he takes a dramatic pause to let the girls conclude the scary truth. Both of them keep silence for a moment, wondering, what is their friend talking about, and then Carly gets pale suddenly.

"He's goading us," she utters by a trembling voice. "He'll hunt on our close people, because he can't get us."

"He won't hesitant to attack someone from our families, I suppose," Freddie adds by a sinister voice.

"I don't get it," admits Sam. "I thought he's killing only the teenagers."

"Sam, for some reason he wants us," Carly explains her. "We're his main target and probably he won't hesitant to kill someone from our families and then reach us, get it? Because of us our loved ones are vulnerable!"

"Oh," utters Sam gloomily and puts the sandwich down. "It explains a lot."

For the long while all of them keep silence.

"So," Sam says, "it seems that we have to give in to not let him hurt people we love?"

"Yeah, it seems so," says Carly by a trembling voice.

"We can't allow close to our people to die because of us. Nevel's and Wendy's death are enough."

"But if we go to him, he'll kill us!" Sam's voice suddenly becomes high and shrill. "What sense does it make?"

"Maybe we'll be able to catch him, call the police before the action or something," Freddie says, but there's no hope in his voice.

They keep a gloomy silence again. They've hoped that they would be able to run away from a bloodthirsty psychopathic killer if they were careful, but now they already know there's no escape. They have to give in to protect their loved ones, they have to sacrifice for them.

* * *

Dreary mood is with them until the end of lessons. They can't focus while a special assembly convened by the principal after the news of Wendy's death and while any lessons either. After the awaited bell they come out of the school and there's only one thing in their head - _a sacrifice._

Carly leaves school as first. She walks through the parking lot, next to wall of school building. She doesn't look around, she's absent by thoughts.

"Carly, stop!" she hears frightened voice suddenly and a second later someone knocks her down to the floor. Amazed Carly doesn't manage to protect herself and along with the attacker she lies down on the cold and wet asphalt. For a while she thinks it's a psychopathic killer who wants to murder her and she's about start to yell, when she realizes that's only Freddie.

"Are you crazy?" she asks, irritated, moving up. Freddie gives her a hand and helps to stand up.

"Look," he says, pointing on the place, where Carly was standing. The girls looks over here and she sees a broken brick right directly in the place, where she was a just a few seconds ago. She gets dreaded and lifts up her head to look above the school's roof.

And then she sees him. She notices her persecutor's face. For a split second they look each other in the eyes and then the killer, realizing Carly has noticed him, in a moment turns around and disappears.

Carly, not controlling herself actually, starts to run around the building. She runs as fast she can toward the place, where the murderer should appear. She hears screaming Freddie trying to make her stop, but she doesn't listen to him. She wants to get this man finally, who's still irking them, although her subconscious is telling her it's dangerous, very dangerous.

She scours the school area, but she can't see him anywhere. For a while she storms around the school, looking around warily. How could he just disappear? He had to get off the roof somehow and then Carly for sure would notice him. But it's a fact - there's no man who wanted to kill her a moment ago. Because Carly doesn't doubt that he's this psychopathic murderer. How come he appears on the roof of school in the Downtown and nobody notices it?

Irritated, she backs to the starting point, where Freddie's still standing and Sam with disoriented face stands next to him.

"What's going on?" she asks, looking suspiciously on panting and flushed Carly.

"I saw him!" she utters. "He was here, a moment ago, and he tried to kill me! If Freddie didn't knock me down, it would hit my head! I tried to catch him, but he disappeared, vanished into thin air!"

"Let's go home," Freddie says calming, pulling Carly softly. "People are starting to look at us."

Carly doesn't want to go home, she wants to scour all the school - inside and outside. She feels that he's somewhere nearby, just for the asking, maybe there's an unique opportunity to catch him and finish this all. She's angry at friends, because they don't share her view, but despite this, she lets Freddie to lead herself toward to school gate.

"Let's drink some smoothies," Freddie proposes. "We deserve it."

Fifteen minutes later they comes in the Groovy Smoothie. Carly is a little bit calmed; now she's numb. She came terrifyingly close to death. If Freddie didn't jerk her on time, she would be dead now... How could she let herself for a moment of forgetfulness, well knowing that there's someone who wants to kill her? She glances at Freddie, but he looks normal, like he was unaware that he saved her life... again.

People in the Groovy Smoothie are grim, so differently as usual. News about Wendy's death spread through them - she derived from this neighbourhood, so her tragic death is a cause of sadness for much people. Carly, Freddie and Sam sit down by one of the tables and a moment later they drink sweet smoothies.

"What's eating you, Carls?" asks Sam, when her friend doesn't take a part in a conversation, just looks out of the window, lost in gloomy thoughts.

"I can't stop think about it," she confesses. "About this I saw him. He was so close, just for asking! How could he just disappear?"

"Don't worry about it," Freddie says. "The most important thing is you're alright."

"What are you talking about, Fredweiner?" Sam's outraged. "Carly was just a step from death and in addition that psycho got so close to us! It _is_ a reason to be worried!"

"Why do you look like you wouldn't care?" asks Carly suspiciously, at once grateful to Sam. "You behave like it would be nothing big, but he almost killed me!"

Freddie just shrugs. "I think we should be happy that Carly's alright, it's all," he states.

"What's with you?" wonders Sam.

"I just feel bad, this all is beyond me," Freddie say. "I'm going home." He stands up and although he's still has got a half of his smoothie to drink, he pays and leaves. Sam and Carly exchange surprised gazes.

"At first he proposes drinking a smoothie and then he just leaves," says dissatisfied Sam.

"He behaves strange today," agrees Carly.

"Even suspiciously..." Sam lowers the voice conspiratorially.

"What do you mean...?" Carly asks, looking at her, disoriented. After a while her eyes become wide-opened from amaze. "No way, you don't think, that... Come on, Sam!" she shouts, when her friend is still looking at her, expectantly. "Yeah, Freddie was a little bit weird today, but I can understand him, he's tired. He's by our side, Sam, he saved me, after all!

"Okay, forget it." Sam raises her hands in a defensive gesture and Carly shakes her head, amazed that Sam could suspect Freddie.

Half an hour later they drink their smoothies up. With a little bit better mood they come out from the Groovy Smoothie and walk toward Bushwell Plaza.

"Wanna come round to me?" Carly proposes, but Sam only spins her head.

"Not today," she says, "I promised my mother I would come home right after the school."

"School ended over an hour ago," notices Carly, raising her eyebrows.

"Oops." Sam only shrugs with an innocent face.

On the next crossroad they say their goodbyes and Sam goes toward her house. She tries not to show it, but she's really worried because of all this situation. Thoughtful, she walks in the street and then everything happens like in a slow motion.

She hears a roar of engine, squeeze of tires and a frightened scream somewhere behind her. She turns her head and sees blinding flesh of car lights, which glide just toward her. She reacts immediately and jumps. She falls on the pavement on the other side and the car, black with darkened windows, drives away as fast as it appeared.

Shocked Sam let one of the passers-by to pick her up. She doesn't see his face, doesn't hear his voice. "I'm fine, I'm alright," she says, not knowing to who, still looking at the point, when the car disappeared. She grabs her backpack and runs to home.

* * *

Carly sneaks in the apartment quietly. She takes off her jacket and shoes, dreaming only about escape to her bedroom, curling up on the bed, falling asleep and waking up, when all this nightmare will be ended.

"What's up, kid?" asks Spencer from the kitchen.

"Pretty okay," she answers quietly and walks toward her room, shuffling her feets.

"Hungry?"

"Not really." She sets her foot on the first step. Just a little bit more and she'll be alone, in her room, safe, and maybe even calmer.

"Everything's fine, Carls?" Spencer comes out he kitchen and looks at sister attentively, which only nods. "For sure? For a few days you've been looking like you saw a ghost."

"I... I just don't feel so good," mutters Carly. She hates lying, especially lying to Spencer. But, to be honest, she's not in a top form. The brother's still looking at her suspiciously and carefully, so Carly smiles faintly. "I'll go to my bedroom, maybe I'll feel better, if I sleep for a while," she adds and goes upstairs.

When she gets in her bedroom finally, she sighs deeply and throws her backpack in a corner. She wants to sit down and burns into the tears, but she knows she can't show her emotions. She wants to tell Spencer everything, it would be easier surely, but she knows she can't, to protect him.

To break away from bad thoughts, she decides to check, what's happening on . She realizes that the computer is turned on and it makes her surprised, because she's sure she had turned it off before she went to school. She moves the mouse to turn off the screensaver. On the screen there's opened window of her e-mailbox and one of them is displayed.

_The longer you run away, the less you protect your loved ones, Carly Shay._

A scream of fear comes out of her throat, when she jumps out, scared. She runs out from the bedroom and rushes downstairs. "Spencer!" she yells, shooting in the living room, where her brother is talking on the phone. He gazes at her, surprised by her sudden exciting, especially a moment ago she looked miserable.

"I'll phone you back soon," he says to the phone and disconnects. "What's going on?"

"Were you in my bedroom today?"

"No, but why-"

"Did anyone come to our apartment today?" Carly doesn't let him to finish.

"No, but what are you-"

"Did you go out somewhere?"

"Yeah, to a shop. Carly, what's going on?" he asks, irritated.

"Nothing," says his sister hastily and runs to the kitchen. From one of the cupboards she draws out the notebook, pulls a sheet of paper and writes down the e-mail adress. "Don't worry," she says to disoriented Spencer while running and shoots out the apartment and a moment later she knocks on the Bensons' door.

"Excuse me, young lady?" Mrs. Benson opens the door with angry face. Carly takes three quick breaths to calm herself down.

"Hello, is Freddie home?" she utters. "I have to talk to him about something very important, can I?"

"Right. He's in his bedroom," agrees Mrs. Benson, clearly disgusted, that Carly wants to visit her son. She lets her in and the girl shoots in Freddie's bedroom ruthlessly. She stops violently, remembering all the memories linked with this place and she feels that her cheeks are burning.

"Carly?" Freddie sitting by the computer, looks at her, disoriented. "What are you doing here?"

"Hi," she says carefully, smiling nervously. "How are you?" she asks, but her friend only shrugs. "We had a crazy day, right?"

"Kinda," admits Freddie. "I don't save your life every day."

"But you do it rather often." Carly giggles nervously. She's upset because of the mysterious message and it's stupid to talk to Freddie after the accident in the Groovy Smoothie at once. The Sam's idea is still in hear head, Carly doesn't believe it, though. "Hey, I wish you doing something for me," she says.

"No problem, what's up?"

"Can you check this e-mail adress for me?" She gives him the pulled sheet from the notebook. "Can you learn out, to who it belongs?"

Freddie looks at the paper and raises his eyebrows, amazed. "I know this adress," he says slowly, lifting his eyes. "It's mine."

"But yours is different," utters Carly.

"I've made a new one recently," explains Freddie, "but I haven't show it to anybody already. How did you get it?" he asks suspiciously.

For a long moment Carly can't utter a single world. Is it possible that Sam's right? No, it's completely unlogical! They don't have any proofs, that Freddie revealed them - except that he didn't care about Carly's accident, and now this e-mail... But it's still nothing sure, Freddie can't be against them, it's about him too. But her subconscious suggest her that Sam's right. Her stomach squeezes from dread.

What should she tell Freddie? The truth? No, she can't. If she charged him about anything, in addition wrongly, she would get remorse forever.

"You gave it to me, remember?" she asks firmly, like it would be the truth.

"No, Carly, I made this adress yesterday," Freddie denies, there's a doubt on his face.

"You gave it to me today in a school, Freddie," convinces him Carly, still firmly.

"So if I had given it to you today, why you wanted me to check it?" he asks, raising his eyebrows. Carly gets numb.

"Because... I didn't remember, who gave it to me, but now I already know," she says hastily. "I have to go, I've got heaps of things to do. Bye." As violently she ran in the bedroom, as fast she runs out, feeling Freddie's hot look at her neck.

She comes in the 8-C apartment, shaken. "I'm fine, okay?!" she scream at surprised Spencer, because she has never behaved in this way. "Everything is totally fine!" Her voice is distraught.

She runs in her bedroom and burns into the tears. Emotions and accidents from last days blows her up and she can't stand it anymore. She jumps on the bed and curls up, sobbing. She wants to throw it all away, she can't keep it inside anymore, she's got no power.

The pillow is almost soaked, when Carly hears someone coming in to the bedroom. She picks up and - what surprises her - sees Freddie standing in the doorstep. She wipes the tears from eyes hastily, making her make-up even more blurry. She knows she looks pathetic and she's ashamed.

"Carls," says the boy softly, sitting down on her bed, "tell me, what's going on. Because somehow I can't believe you, that 'nothing', that everything is fine. We are in this together," he adds, when Carly still doesn't speak.

"You were right... you didn't gave me your new e-mail adress," admits Carly. "Look at the computer."

Freddie obediently stands up and comes up to the desk. He moves the mouse to turn off the screensaver and reads the message, frowning.

"Your e-mail adress," suggests Carly.

Her friend turns around, pale because of dread. "Carly, but I didn't send it to you... You know it." When the girl doesn't answer, he comes up, sits down next to her and grabs her hands. Carly raises her eyebrows slightly. "You believe me, right? Right?"

"I don't understand your today's behaviour," admits Carly, sobbing. "At first you're saving me from a brick, which would smash my head, then you're disregarding it and this e-mail right now. I don't know what to think, Freddie."

"Carly, I would never... Today everything was so crazy... I don't know what to think either, but I know one thing. I would never, ever do anything against you and Sam," declares Freddie seriously.

"I trust you," Carly says, in fact convinced by her friend's statement. "I'm just... I'm fed up with it. Why has he a down on us? I want this to end." She starts to cry again. Freddie embraces her and she clings to him and everything immediately looks better somehow.

"We can deal with it," Freddie whispers and Carly has got no reason to not trust him.


	6. Chapter Five

**A/N: You know, it always makes me very happy, when I'm reading a nice reviews to my story. It's nice to know that somebody reads my scribble, what I like to call 'a story'. ;) Yeah, I know, I tell it before every chapter, but I _really_ appreciate the reviews. And maybe my life is just so sad and boring that I have nothing to do but waiting fo a reviews, dunno.**

**Nuttybuddyninja & jimbo74 - I'll say nothing about Freddie, I'll just say that anything could happen. ;)  
**

**The Volganologist - keep calm, the biggest intensity is on the road! **

**MegColes & iamfinethanks - well... that's an interesting idea. Once again - who knows, what will happen? (I know, lol)**

**Kyle McShade - your welcome! And, seriously, it's always hard to me to kill a character I like, so I usually don't do this. _Usually_...**

**Ella - thank you so much, sweetie! :)**

**Okay, so let's go with Chapter Five. There's more Spencer appearing in this chapter (say 'yay'!). :) As usual, have fun while reading!**

* * *

**Chapter Five**

When Freddie leaves, Carly feels alot better. For a while she stops thinking about all bad things. She straightens herself up in the bathroom and goes downstairs to eat some late dinner. She sits down with it on the couch and turns on _Girly Cow_, what always makes her happier. She feels calm and rectified.

"So you changed your mind and decide to eat something?" Spencer sits down next to her.

"Yeah," she admits. "Hey... I'm sorry, you know, that I yelled at you. I don't know, what happened to me." Carly in fact feels stupid. "I can't gather myself recently."

"It's okay," ensures Spencer. "Just promise me one thing, fine?" Carly nods. "If you ever be in trouble or have a problem, even if you think it's the stupidest thing on whole world, just come to me and tell me about it, okay?"

"Sure," replies Carly immediately, but she can't look at him. It so obvious lie and she hates lying so much... Remorses starts to eat her, but after a moment she remembers she's doing it to make him safe. She even doesn't want to think about her life without Spencer.

* * *

"Today I'm not gonna say we look quite nice, given that we're people with a death penalty," says Sam gloomily, when the next morning before the lessons they're sitting on a bench in one of the school hallways. Sam already knows, what happened yesterday. All of them are pale because of lack of sleep, anxiety and tiredness. "Yesterday was the craziest day in my life and I've gone through a lot."

Freddie and Carly don't answer, only still are looking gloomily ahead.

"I don't know, how will I hold out on the lessons," says Carly quietly. "All the time I think about..." The words 'the serial murderer, which wants to kill us' can't come out from her throat.

"Truancy?" Sam proposes. Carly and Freddie look at her.

"It makes no sense," says the boy. "We'll be in a trouble."

"We already are, so what the matter?" Sam shrugs. "Let's go somewhere, anywhere. I can't look at these grim faces anymore, I want to go somewhere, where I won't be supposed to think about all of it."

"Where do you want to go?" Carly asks.

"I don't know, maybe Westlake Center? Come on, we've got nothing to lose, yeah?"

"We can get detention and our frequency will be lower..." Freddie's still doubtful, but Sam snaps him in the ear and the boy hisses, irritated.

"Some psycho wants to kill us and you're worried about your frequency?" asks angry Sam. "We're going," she orders and walks toward the exit and Carly and Freddie look at each other and goes behind her.

Indeed, when someone wants to kill you, a view of having a detention doesn't scary you so much.

* * *

Carly has never been on a truancy before, but she enjoys her first time, when she's missing a lessons. She says goodbye to Freddie and comes into her apartment. After a long moment she realizes that she's smiling - for first time in the long time. _Maybe today's the day of doing everything for the first time_, she thinks cheerfully and goes to the kitchen to drink some juice. It's wonderful to be in a good mood and to not think about worries for a moment.

"Hey!" she yells merrily to Spencer, who emerges from his bedroom. Seeing his sister in a surprisingly good mood, raises the eyebrows slightly. "Are you going out?"

"Yep, I'm gonna see Socko, I'll be back in a half of hour." He grabs the motorcycle helmet and comes out. Carly, still smiling, takes her backpack and goes upstairs, to her bedroom. She knows she should catch up on the school, but she doesn't care now, she doesn't want to come back to the reality, she wants to stay in a good mood.

Although they haven't see each other in only fifteen minutes, Carly phones Sam. Her friend is in a good mood too, after a day spent in a mall. It's not about shopping, because they hadn't got money, it's about a possibility of abruption from the dark reality. They chatter cheerfully, carefully avoiding the topic of dangerousness lurking on them. It's like in the old times.

Carly even doesn't notice, when two hours pass. When she ends a phone call finally, her ear is hot because of the phone. She phones her classmate to get today's notes and then, carrying a armful of books sits down on the couch in the living room. In a certain moment she notices that Spencer still hasn't come back from Socko, although he left three hours ago and said he would back in a half of hour. _He overstayed for sure_, states Carly, shrugging and comes back to doing a homework.

In a certain moment the door opens, what breaks Carly away from the boring Maths exercises. She raises her head and looks angrily at Spencer, who's closing the door slowly.

"Where have you been so long, you said that-" She notices how her brother looks. His shirt is torn, showing a wide scratches on the arms and chest, and it's soaked with a blood. The wounds are on all his body, even on the face. "Oh my God, what happened to you?" asks scared Carly.

"I've had a little accident," he answers, wincing from a pain.

"Oh, a 'little' accident?" Carly frowns. "Lie down over here." She gathers the books from the couch hastily. Spencer falls on it with a moan of pain. "Maybe I'll bring you something? A water, maybe an ice?"

"No, thanks, kiddo," Spencer closes eyes. Carly sits down on the coffee table and looks up at her brother watchfully.

"What happened?" she asks, worried.

"I'm not sure, actually," he says. "I was coming back from Socko, riding through a crossroad, where I've got a priority and in a certain moment some freak from a subordinate way shoots in and drives in straight at us." Amazed Carly opens her eyes wider. "I don't know that guy, but I heard after that accident he just drove away like if nothing has happened. The police and ambulance came immediately, it became quite a stir."

"You should go to a hospital, it looks seriously," Carly says, looking at Spencer's wounds with an anxious.

"I've already been, they took there every hurt person." Spencer tries to take a handkerchiefs from the coffee table to wipe a blood from his face, but he only groans from a pain. Carly gives it to him immediately. "Thanks. They told me I was very lucky or something like that. They want me to stay in a observation, but I demanded a homecoming."

"You should stay there," says Carly seriously.

"Come on, I'm just a little bit battered," triffles her brother. "I'll lie for a few days and I'll be okay." He gives a comforting smile Carly pale from a fear. "I just hope they'll catch this psycho soon."

"Is someone except you hurt?" asks the girl.

"Yes, few people-"

Before Spencer manages to finish, Freddie shoots in the apartment after a quick knocking. He seems to be intrigued and anxious. "Hey, have you heard about that collision on... What's with you, have you been on a war?" he asks, looking at wounded Spencer, who gives him a crocked smile.

"He affirms that he had a 'little' accident," says Carly cynically.

"Because it was little, nothing big happened to me..."

"I wouldn't say." Carly looks at Spencer's wounds.

"You worry too much," he states and slowly stand up and then shuffles to the bathroom.

"You have to lie down!" Carly yells. "I'll come to you later!"

"You don't have to!"

"But I will!" states Carly and shifts her gaze on Freddie. "So, what do you want to tell me?"

"I wanted to tell you about the collision on the 3rd Avenue and Union Street crossroad, but after seeing Spencer, I suppose you already know about it," Freddie says, looking at the bathroom with an anxious. "How is he?"

"He was coming home from Socko, when on the crossroad shot in a car from a subordinated street. He affirms he's okay, but I can see with the naked eye that he got hit hard." Carly frowns.

"They say the same in the TV," Freddie says, turning it on. He turns on the news channel.

"Around three hours ago on the 3rd Avenue and Union Street crossroad occured a collision," says the speaker wowan with a serious face. "A speeding car drove in a crossroad and hit a motorcyclist and passers-by and few cars collided while braking attempt. There are probably seven victims, who got transported to a hospitals, three of them are in a serious condition. The police is looking for a culprit, who ran away."

Carly and Freddie listen to the news, focused. In a certain moment the girl's phone is ringing. She grabs it unawares and accept the call without even looking at the screen. "Yes?" she says.

"I warned you."

Carly gets cold from a fear. She opens her eyes widely. "Who are you?" she utters. "What do you want?"

"You," replies a electronically distorted voice and disconnects. Carly with a disbelief withdraws the phone from her ear and looks at Freddie, frightened. The boy frowns.

"It was him, right?" he asks quietly. "He phoned you?" Carly only nods slowly. "He caused that accident?"

"It wasn't an accident," says Carly, not looking at him. "He attacked Spencer, he wanted to hurt him. Oh my God!" She jumps up of the couch suddenly. "Freddie, he attacked Spencer! He could kill him!" she yells, panicked.

"Carly..." Freddie tries to calm her down.

"We've been waiting too long Freddie, too long!" Carly's more and more scared. "He warned us, he told us he would attack our loved ones if we didn't give up, but we ignored that! We should give up at the beginning!"

"Carls, calm down." Freddie stand up and grabs her arms. "Spencer's alright... almost," he adds after a moment, "but he's alive and he'll bounce back."

"We can't wait anymore." Carly looks at him seriously. "We don't know, who'll be next and when. We have to give up. We have to go to him."

"But..." Freddie doesn't know, what to say. He doesn't want it, because he knows it means a death, but at once he's aware that Carly's right. They can't wait and watch passively, how their close people are harmed because of them. Spencer's accident is a signal for them that the persecutor's getting impatient. A cold shiver goes through his chest, when he imagines that something like that could happen to his mom. "Let's tell Sam about everything at first, okay?"

"Okay," agrees trembling Carly. When Freddie phones Sam, his friend is pacing the living room anxiously, biting her lower lip. Her good mood crumbled like a soap bubble.

"Sam's gonna be here in a fifteen minutes," Freddie informs, putting down the phone.

"Cool. I'm going to dr. Dresdin, maybe he'll give me something for a Spencer's wounds," Carly says and comes out.

Freddie sighs deeply, sitting down on the couch and looks at the ceiling. The flat is quiet, he hears only the sound of water in the bathroom. Freddie thinks about Carly's words. _We have to give up_. But Freddie doesn't want to give up, he doesn't want to die. But in this situation... If Carly is right and if the collision on 3rd Avenue and Union Street crossroad wasn't an accident, they're in a big trouble, because it means that the killer's really able to hurt their loved ones to reach them. Freddie understands Carly and her fear, if on Spencer's place was his mom, he would react identically. Beside it, damn, Spencer's his friend and Freddie's worried about his accident. Spencer's first, but who knows, who'll be next? Freddie's mom, Sam's mom, maybe someone else? He knows they can't allow someone get killed because of them, they couldn't take it. But if they don't react, it'll end like that. So it seems they've got no choice, they have to sacrifice to save their close people. Freddie doesn't want to die, but dying for people you love seems a heroic way to end a life. He wonders, how the people would react on the news that Sam, Freddie and Carly became the next victims of The Throat Ripper from Seattle. Although he doesn't want it, he imagines their funeral. He sees all of it very clearly - three coffins and the mourners: Freddie's mother crying hysterical and violently, Sam's mom, still provocating on her way, but subdued, sad face of Sam's sister, Melanie (he's not sure, because he still doesn't believe she exist, though), pale Spencer and Colonel Shay... Their death would be very painful for their loved ones. On the other hand, a death of their loved ones would be very painful for them. Isn't it selfish that they choose an option making other people painful instead of taking this pain? But they'll still alive, their wounds will scar up one day and their life will become normal again. It's optimistic. Freddie's getting mad at the man, who's haunting on them. Why did he chose them? They're young, the world is their oyster, they could do so much things, achieve so much... Surely their names will be memorized because of _iCarly_, but for how long? Everyone will forget about them...

Spencer coming to the living room makes Freddie stop wondering. He watches Spencer going, actually shuffling to the kitchen. His moves are stiff and full of sore. Freddie wonders, how Spencer will react when he'll learn out about Carly's death and he pities him. It's very impossible he'll blame himself, his father and granddad will also think it's his fault. Once again Freddie thinks that by giving up and dying they can do more harm than good.

"Hey, everything's okay?" he says to Spencer, who takes to the first aid kit and drawns some painkillers out. "Can I help you with something?"

"No, Fredo, it's alright," he answers and swallows the pills. In the same moment Carly comes back in a round pack in a hand.

"I told you to lie down!" she says with an anger to her brother, who only rolls his eyes, but he doesn't manage to answer, because in the same moment the door opens again and Sam shoots in the apartment. She doesn't look at anybody, only runs to the fridge.

"Out," she growls to Spencer and hits him to push him away. He growns from a pain and almost drops to a knees.

"Sam!" reproves her Carly and runs up to her brother. "You," She points at him and pushes a salve from Dr. Dresdin in his hand, "to the bed. You," she points at Sam, who looks at her innocently, "on the couch."

"You look shitty," Sam states, looking at Spencer, interested.

"And I feel shitty," Spencer admits.

"Now!" Carly squeals and Spencer and Sam rolls their eyes at once.

When Spencer disappears in his bedroom, the friends sit down on the couch. Freddie and Carly are anxious, but Sam seems to still be in a good mood. "What going on?" she asks. "Why are you so grim?"

"Have you heard about that collision on the 3rd Avenue and Union Street crossroad?" answers Freddie by a question.

"Yes, I have. I was in the El Taco Guapo and everyone was talking about it." Sam nods. "Some guy from subordinated way drove in and hit some motocyclist, right?"

"That 'some' motorcyclist was Spencer," says Carly seriously, what baffles Sam.

"Oh," she says, looking at the door of Spencer's bedroom and then at the kitchen. "Oh," she repeats, when puts two and two together.

"Yeah, 'oh'," says Carly sarcastically. "It was him surely, because he drove a black car with darkened windows and it fits to this kind of shady-looking individual. And besides-"

"Wait a sec," Sam cuts her off. "A black car with darkened windows?" Freddie and Carly nod. "Holy crab," she utters. "Listen, there's something I haven't told you about... Yesterday, when I was coming home, I got almost hit by a car. A black one, with darkened windows," she adds, raising her eyebrows meaningfully.

"Oh my God, Sam, why didn't you tell us about it earlier?" Carly is frightened, but her friend doesn't answer, she's pale and nervous. "So... we're sure," Carly mutters. "Besides, he phoned me."

"Phoned you?" Sam gets amazed. "Did you recognize the voice?"

"No, it was deformed. But it's not about this. It's about the fact we have to decide, what are we gonna do. Now, when we already know he won't hesitate to hurt our close people, it looks we have to give up..."

Sam and Freddie doesn't answer, the silence is full of nervousness.

"We can't allow to someone get killed because of us," says Freddie quietly after a long moment. "And if we don't react, don't give up, he won't hesitate to kill... someone," he finishes faintly. He doesn't want to say a name of someone specific.

"Geez, it's so suckish." Sam sighs deeply. "It sucks we have to sacrifice. I don't want to die!" Her voice becomes shrill, Sam looses self-control.

"And if we could... if we could stop him?" asks Freddie cautiously.

"What are you talking about?" Carly is surprised.

"I mean that maybe... maybe we don't have to die. We have to go to him to make him think we're giving up, but... if we call the police, maybe everything will ends up good? Besides, there are our three and he's alone."

"It's risky," states Sam, "but I think it's the only way to stay alive, so you're on."

They look at Carly expectantly, and she only shrugs. "We can't to make any specific plan, because we don't know, what will happen," she says. "By the way, did you think how will we contact him and say him we're giving up?"

"Well, I suppose he already knows," Freddie replies and indeed, after a while they hear a beep of incoming message on his phone. The boy calmfully read the text. "_Saturday, 7.30 p.m., an old car factory on the suburbs, no tricks, no police_," he reads, gazing at the girls, but they can't utter a single word, they're too paralyzed from a fear.

* * *

"Hey, can I?" asks Carly cautiously, popping her head out of the door.

"Sure, kiddo," answers Spencer cheerfully. He's lying in his bed and reading. "What's up?" he asks when Carly sits down on the edge of the bed slowly.

"What are you reading?" Carly says the first what comes to her mind.

"_Duma Key_ by King," he says and looks at her carefully. "But I think you want to talk about something else, right?"

"I just came to check, how are you," she says hastily. "Do you feel better?"

"Let's say." He shrugs. "They told me that in three days I'll get better."

"I was really scared, when you came home so wounded," Carly confesses.

"Stop worry about me, I'm the adult one here." Spencer smiles slightly, brushing her hair back, but she only looks down. There's no words to describe her fear and anxiety. "It was only an accident, they happen even to the best ones. Hey, kid, what's with you?" he asks carefully, when the tears stream down the face of his sister.

Carly tries to stop them, but she doesn't manage. She feels that everything's beyond her, she doesn't want to bottle it up anymore, she's only a kid, why has she to experience this kind of things? It's so unfair... Not controlling herself, she clings to Spencer, who swings her in his arms calming. He's so unaware of everything that Carly's heart is in a pain.

"Hey, kid, I'm not dying," he says quietly, trying to calm her down.

_But I am_, Carly thinks.


	7. Chapter Six

**A/N:To be honest, I don't have an idea what to write here today, so...  
**

**The Volcanologist - your review made me laugh. I'm really glad you like it! And don't worry, everything will be clear... soon. ;)  
**

**MegColes - I think it's the nicest review I've ever received, you made me blush! The Throat Ripper doesn't appear in this Chapter, but he will in the next one! Dum-dum-dummm... Stay tuned. :)  
**

**Kyle McShade - I like him too, haha. I'm trying to make this story kinda realistic (but when I'm thinking about next chapters, I'm less and less sure if it's realistic, but oh well, who cares) and I'm trying to not forget that iCarlies are only three teens, not superheroes. ;)**

**jimbo74 -as I said... anything could happen. ;)  
**

**Okay, so now... let's just read the chapter... and let's end this awkard situation. *flies away***

* * *

**Chapter Six**

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday elapse in a fast motion, like someone would rotate the clockwise to make the time going by faster. Everything is blended in one, the friends don't pay attention to people around them, because there's only one thought in their minds -_ I'll die soon_.

They prepare a plan for Saturday. They decide to not inform the police; they're too scared - especially after Spencer's 'accident'. There are no new reports about any new murders, but they're not surpised, because he's waiting for them, for the victims, who will shock whole Seattle and even more than Seattle maybe...

"We have to think about something what will make us able to leave home at Saturday night," Freddie says, when they're coming back from school. They're all pale because of lack of sleep and stress. "Spencer won't let Carly go out after the nightfall, and my mother even more."

"It's good I don't have this problem," Sam throws in.

"I'll get some idea, I'll convince him somehow," promises Carly. "And you? Will you manage? Your mother checks you every time when you're going out," she says to Freddie, who shrugs.

"I was thinking about it and I conclude that I'll say that it I'm going to the Brad's house. I talked to him, he'll cover for me," the boy says and his friends look at him, impressed - Freddie never before would lie to his mother. But now the situation is exceptional...

"There's one matter left," says Carly after some time. "_iCarly_. We do the show at seven o'clock and at half past seven we have to be there."

"We'll broadcast the webshow earlier," Freddie proposes.

"Let's not do it at all," Sam mutters. She can't imagine doing a crazy, cheerful webshow in this kind of mood.

"We can't cancel the show two times in a row," Carly disagrees. "Freddie's right, just do it a hour earlier. I don't have any idea how will we do it, though..."

Both Freddie and Sam don't answer her.

* * *

"Take an action," whispers Sam to Carly when she's leaving the 8-C apartment after the rehearsal to_ iCarly_. It's late afternoon.

"I know," replies her friend nervously and also quietly. "I planned everything."

Sam looks at her suspiciously for a long while and then she comes out. Carly closes the door, turns around and takes a deep breath. She puts her hands in back pockets of her jeans, trying to hide her anxiety and then she comes up to Spencer, who's working at the sculpture. It looks like a mix of a bunny and a horse and Carly even doesn't want to know what it'll be eventually. Spencer looks a way better than three days ago, although his wounds are still visible.

"Hey," she says, sitting by the kitchen counter. "Are you doing something tommorow evening?"

"Yes, I was about to tell you," he answers. "I've got a date with Carrie tommorow evening, but you don't mind, right?" he asks and Carly can do nothing but nod.

"Sure, no problem. And... when will you come back?" she asks, trying to make her voice sound naturally.

"At night, maybe on Saturday morning. You'll manage?"

"Of course I will, I'm almost grown up," she says hastily, trying to smile, but she only winces. She's relieved she's not forced to lie to the brother at once. "This Carrie... she's nice, isn't she?" Carly asks, trying to sound innocently. Spencer looks at her suspiciously, slightly blushing at once.

"Yes, she's nice," he admits and Carly can't refrain to give him a triumphal smile.

* * *

Sam comes out from her bedroom, trying to make no sound, but it's unnecessary - her mother is sleeping on the couch with a hand in the bowl with chips. The TV is turned on. Usually, Sam would be angry at Pam, but this time she feels only something like a tenderness. Maybe because she'll stand face to face with a death?

Sam is always the one, who's tough, comforts everyone around her when they need it. But sometimes there are moments when she needs a comfort, assurance that everything will be alright, for example now. She's scared, she's scared as hell, but she doesn't show it up, because she doesn't want to lose her honour and reputation of indestructible person. But Sam isn't titanium, she's an average girl who sometimes needs showing some feelings to her too.

She turns off the TV and pulls mother's hand out of the bowl. Pam mutters something drowsily and turns up to the back. Sam stands above her, looking at the woman, who is her mother, but not her mom. Despite this she leans over her, kisses her forehead and leaves quietly, feeling hot tears in the eyes.

* * *

"You took everything you need, Freddie?" asks worried Mrs. Benson and her son rolls his eyes.

"I'm going to Brad, not across the country," he asks, trying to smile, but it turns only in a crooked smile. "Everything will be okay, nothing bad will happen."

"You never know," warns him the mother. "There are so much dangers around you and you're not even aware of them, Freddie!"

"Mom." Freddie comes up to Marissa and grabs her arms. For a long moment he looks into blue mother's eyes, so different than his, dark. They're taken after his dad's eyes - the man who Freddie vaguely remembers. He sees a fear on mother's face, which has been with her for last sixteen years, when she's worrying about her little (at least in her opinion) son. Althought she humiliated him publicly countless times and she's surely overprotective, she's the only one person on the whole world, who loves him disinterestedly and honestly. Freddie tries to image her reaction on death of her only son and a cold shiver goes through him. "I love you," he says softly and embraces surprised Marissa.

* * *

"You're going out?" asks surprised Carly, when the next day, in the evening she sees that Spencer's getting ready for his date.

"Yeah, I said you it yesterday," he reminds, dressing up a blazer.

"Oh yeah, in fact..." Carly says unconsciously. During all day she's a bundle of nerves and she can't focus on anything - she still doesn't know how come she manage to do _iCarly_ without any setback. "Have fun."

"I'm gonna have fun," provides her brother, giving her a sly smile. Carly feels a lump in the throat and, not controlling herself, runs up to Spencer and clings to him. Spencer, surprised, raises his hands. "What's going on?" he asks quietly.

"Nothing," Carly mumbles. But it's an obvious lie, she's got tons of problem, the first one is that in a hour she'll meet up with a man who wants to kill her. "Just hug me," she adds, hiding the face in his shirt.

"Okay, little cuddle toy." Spencer swings her in his arms and then steps aside. "Remember to lock the door later."

"Sure," Carly says, trying not to cry. Spencer kisses her in forehead and leaves.

Carly turns around from the door and looks at the ceiling, trying to stop hot tears in her eyes. She gazes at the clock, it's quarter to seven and they usually should be getting ready to broadcasting _iCarly_ now. She takes a deep breath to calm herself down, but she's so paralyzed of scare that she's only trembling more and more. She's about to jump on the couch and burst into the tears when somebody knocks on the door. It's Freddie.

"Ready?" he asks softly. He's serious, pale and frightened.

"No," she answers, truthfully. "But we've got no choice, right?" she asks and Freddie spins his head gloomily. They come into the elevator together. "I'm scared, Freddie," Carly confesses quietly, when the elevator's driving them down to the hall.

"I'm scared too," the boy admits, "I'm scared as hell. But if we die today, we'll die to protect our loved ones, and this is a beatiful death, Carly."

Carly doesn't look at him, just stares at her sneakers. An average sixteen-year-old girl at this time should be getting ready to a party, spending time with a friends or just watching TV in a comfy hoodie instead of talking to her friend about the way they'll die soon.

Sam waits on them in the hall. Just like them, she's pale and serious, but she's able to hide her emotions and it's impossible to see a fear on her face, rather a determination. They leave the Bushwell Plaza, not paying attention to Lewbert, who's snoring loudly.

"How are you feelin'?" Sam asks drearily, when they're going toward a bus stop.

"Guess it," answers Freddie gloomily too.

The friends are numb of dread, they can't believe, what's happening. A life around them is passing its normal speed - people are going to a parties, to their friends, on a dates, they're going alone, in a couples, in a groups, they're talking, laughing, holding each other's hands. Freddie, Sam and Carly feels like they would be in a bubble, which dissociate them from the world. They're only a three teenagers in Seattle's crowd, nobody sees a worry on their faces, nobody would even think that this trio will find in a very dangerous situation in a moment.

The more far from the Downtown, the less people they see and the bigger is their anxiety. They barely talk, just exchange a monosyllables. The friends are thoughtful in their own way.

Eventually they reach to the old car factory on the suburbs. They get off the bus and inhale fresh evening air. They look at each other uncertainly, too scared to make even a single step.

"So," states Sam finally, when the anxious is in the climax, "let's go, yeah?" And she goes toward the factory and Freddie and Carly toddle behind her uncertainly.


	8. Chapter Seven

**A/N: Welcome again! How are you, guys? Of couse, once again thank you for your reviews. You're amazing.**

**jimbo74 - I love cliffhangers, they make everything just more intense! ;)**

**Kyle McShade - yep, they are going to meet him. Right now. In this chapter. Are you ready? :)**

**The Volcanologist - forgive me! :(**

**iamfinethanks - we've got something in common, I love Spencer and I'm glad when he appears too. :)**

**Ella - thank you very much! **

**What is this chapter like? Well... Long. Intense. Full of action. Interesting. Good...? Just read it and rate on your own. Have fun!**

**PS You're asking me if is it a last chapter and I reply - no, it's _not_! As I said before and how Kyle McShade noticed - there are still four chapters left (and probably an epilogue - still not sure). If it was a final chapter, I would say it. Anyway, if anyone got confused - I apologize.**

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

They walk quietly, trying to do as little sound as it's possible. They barely breath and their hearts are leaping. They're aware that they're coming into a dragon's jaws - they can put a gun to their heads and shot as well. They're three teenagers outside the city, vulnerable against the psychopathic who wants to kill them.

But they walk in to the factory. They do it to protect to their loved ones. Never before they would suspect each other to be so brave, but when the time for a taking action comes, you can do seemingly unimaginable things. The factory seems to be quiet, the friends hear only a regular dropping of water from tubing full of holes. They take few steps, looking around uncertainly.

"Do you think he's here?" whispers Carly to her friends, but they don't reply. They walk on the middle of the room and suddenly they hear a click of lockable latch door. They cringe, turn around and look at The Throat Ripper from Seattle.

He looks almost inostensible. He's skinny, rather short, he's around thirty. His dark-blonde hair are disheveled. But in his figure, in his eyes there's visible a madness, not controlling himself, he's twitching spasmodically and breaking out his fingers. The friends swallow at the same time, looking uncertainly at the gun, which is holding in his hand. They're scared to even make a move.

"The _iCarly_ gang," the man says, like he would greet long expected visitors. "It's a pleasure to see you."

The friends don't answer, they're still standing motionless. They look at the man suspiciously.

"To be honest, I wasn't sure if you came here-"

"What do you want?" Carly cuts him off by a squeaky voice. "What's your purpose?"

"Oh, little Carly, after so many signs you still don't know?" The man looks at her, skewing his head and on his face appears a frightening smile. Carly winces slightly. "Your death is my purpose."

"But why?" Freddie asks. "What did we do?"

"Nothing, actually." The man strokes the barrel of his gun fondly. The friends look at his moves with an anxiety. "It sounds surprising, isn't it? Murderers usually have a motive, why they're killing and I... I'm just doing it, because I like it. I'm helping the people to go to better side."

"You're sick," Sam says.

"Maybe," he admits and a frightening smile doesn't disappear from his face. "Anyway, killing random people became to boring to me, it wasn't enough, so I thought 'hey, maybe I could choose a victims whose death will shock half of US?' and that was this. Tormenting you was easier than I expected, although I needed to be sly and foreseeing. But it was worth it, your frightened faces were very funny." He looks at them and something strange appears in his eyes.

"How did you manage to do all those things without leaving any marks?" Freddie asks. "At first these homcidies, and then... those texts, breaking in Carly's bedroom, getting to our school, an accident of Carly's brother... How come did you do all those things and don't get caught?"

"Well, as I said, my plans needed to be measured and cunning sometimes," the man says, clearly proud of himself. "But everything was working out as the best, you have to admit it. I know my job. Besides, don't kid ourselves, police of Seattle is quite... ineffectual."

"What do you want to achieve by killing us? Will it satisfy you?" asks angry Sam.

"Yes, it will," he answers. "You made a popular webshow, you're recognizable... I'm sure your death will shock a whole state, but I sincerely hope that at least the West Coast will be interested in your death. I felt a foretaste when I killed that kid, Nevel, but it wasn't that I had expected. _iCarly_ is more popular... and I like shocking people."

"Why are you killing only the teenagers?" asks Freddie cautiously.

Suddenly a frightening smile disappears from the man's face replaced and it becomes twisted in a rage. "Because the teenagers are spoilt and have nothing in their heads. The world will be better without them."

"You just were bullied in school," Sam states, smiling meanly. "If you were so screwed up as now, I'm not surprised... You were teased and you're taking your revenge, huh? Why won't you just revenge on people who made it to you?"

"It wouldn't be so shocking. A death of innocent teenagers shocked all the society and that's what I wanted to achieve," says the man.

"Eventually the police will find you and you'll go to the prison or you'll get executed. Is it what you want?" Freddie asks.

Before the man manages to answers, Sam throws in, "Okay, man, stop telling your bullshit, let's go to the point," she says angrily. Freddie and Carly hiss at once, try to calm her down.

"Oh, really?" The man comes closer to them. He raises his gun and aims at the friends. Carly closes her eyes automatically, frozening in a stillness and expecting a deathly shoot, but when after a moment nothing happens, she opens the eyes uncertainly. She notices that the man's pointing at pale Freddie. "You, follow me," he requires, pointing a direction by a gun. Freddie looks at the girls hesitantly, but after a while he goes behind the man obediently. "Don't you even dare to move out from there, otherwise I'll smash his head," he threatens and leads Freddie out.

Sam and Carly are so paralyzed from a fear that they even don't think about a runaway - besides, they can't leave Freddie here.

"What do you think, where's he leading Freddie?" Carly whispers.

"There's a small clay shed on the right side, maybe there," whispers Sam too. "He separated Freddie from us to make our runaway more difficult. But he doesn't know that we're gonna runaway anyway," she adds vindictively.

"What are you talking about-" Carly begins, but she doesn't manage to finish, because in this same time the door opens again and the murderer comes back, without Freddie. He gives them a smile, but it's the most frightening smile they've ever seen.

"What's up, girls?" he asks and from his throat comes out something what's probably supposed to be a laugh. "Any last wish?" He raises a gun and points at their head. Carly grabs Sam's hand nervously, wanting to feel a best friend's closeness in this last time. She closes her eyes, ready for a death, expecting a piercing pain.

She feels a movement next to her and hears a moan of a pain and she's sure that Sam has just gotten shot. She opens the eyes and turns around to her friends, ready to screaming her name and crying above her body, but with amaze she discovers that Sam's standing next to her, safe and sound, and the moan of pain came out from the killer's throat, who's looking at the knife pounded in his arm.

"Quick!" Sam pants and entails Carly. They run to the exit and in the same time the man raise his uninjured arm and shoots, but the bullet flies far away from the girls. Sam and Carly reach to him, missing the shots (one of them passes Carly literally an inch). Sam pounces on the man and Carly runs to the door and tries to open it. But her hands are shaking so much she can't do this simple action.

Finally she manages to move the latch, but it's too late. The man pushes her away from the door so hard that Carly falls down. She looks at Sam apologetically, but she only spins her head. The knife she threw (neither Freddie or Carly didn't know she had taken it), is still stuck in the killer's arm, reducing his moves. In addition, Sam managed to knock the gun out of his hand, which is lying next to the opposite wall.

Carly stands up immediately and runs as fast she can behind Sam to the opposite end of the factory, before the man would reach to his gun. Don't looking back, they climb at the ladder by one of the windows. Sam, who's climbing first swings and smash a window, wounding her hand. She squeezes through the window and jumps outside. Carly climbs at the summit of the ladder and looks outside. Sam's on the floor already, around four yards under Carly.

"Jump!" yells panicked Sam. Carly doesn't move, she's scared. She looks around and states that she can't see the killer anywhere. "Carly, jump down!"

"I can't, Sam!" she cries and her friends only urges her by a movement of her hand. Carly, knowing she's got no choice, takes a deep breath and throws herself out of the window. She closes her eyes because of fear. For a short while she feels a cold airflow and then heavily and sorely drops to earth. A dark spots appear in front of her eyes.

"Carly?" Sam leans over her, scared that her friend passed out. Carly slowly opens her eyes, what makes Sam relieved. She helps Carly to stand up. "Okay, let's go home..."

"What about Freddie?" Carly asks.

"We've got no time, we have to run away before he catches us!"

"We can't leave Freddie here!" objects Carly.

Sam rolls her eyes and along with Carly runs to the clay shed next to the wall of the factory. Hiding in the bushes, they see the killer, who stands at the clay shed's door with a gun in one hand and a pushed out and bloody knife in second hand. His wound's bleeding profusely, but he seems to don't care about it.

"Do something, before he attacks Freddie!" squeals Carly, who totally loses her head because of panic. Sam, who saved an ounce of sanity, grabs a nearby rock, swings and throws in the man. It lands literally on his wounded arm, what takes his mind off Freddie.

Freddie uses this moment perfectly. He pushes the man and runs to his friends. The trio run toward the exit of the factory's area. They split up to confuse the murderer. In a certain moment Carly falls down, rip a skin on her knee sorely. Sam and Freddie looks back at her nervously. Carly tries to release, but her leg's wedged between branches of a bush. She yanks her leg nervously and Freddie and Sam squeeze, wanting to help her but being scared to come to her at once. Meanwhile, the man's running to Carly, he grabs her and picks up, releasing her leg. The girl screams terrifyingly and tries to escape. She kicks him in the tibia bone and she manages to get out of his grip, but the man raises his knife and aims it at Carly. The girl in the last moment covers herself up by the arms and only because it the knife's not stuck in her chest, but in her right arm. Carly scream from a pain, but manages to run away from the killer. Sam throws another rock on his head, making him unconscious. Carly joins her pale friends and together they run toward the city.

Carly tries to ignore a pulsing pain in her arm, but it's hard to keep up with fitter friends. However, she gather all her power and runs right behind them. They run out of the factory's area. Sam dares to look back and she feels kinda relieved, when she doesn't see the murderer's around.

Meanwhile, Freddie grabs a PearPhone from his pocket and calls the police, informing an officers about killer's place of residence. Carly jerks his arm, trying to stop him - she remembers the man's threaten and its conquences - but Freddie doesn't gives a way. He's talking to the officer about their location and he disconnects, before an officer asks him about his name.

They madly run to the Bushwell Plaza. They don't pay attention at the passers-by in Downtown, which look at them wide-opened eyes. The friends are dusty, covered in blood and wet because of a water soaked in the factory. They're still scared that the murderer may find them in any moment, although Sam made him unconscious, but they don't think rationally, they can't. They climb at eight floor by the stairs, being to frightened to stop for even a short moment and shoot in the empty 8-C apartment. Carly locks the door hastily and lean on it, panting badly. Only now they can recover.

"We're alone?" makes Sam herself sure.

"Yes," Carly answers, nodding. She tries to take few deep breaths to calm her pulse down; she has never run so fast before for so long time. Freddie seats her on the couch to make her more comfortable.

"Let's bear the wounds," the boys says. "Where's the first aid kit?" he asks and Carly points at the cupboard in the kitchen wordlessly.

Freddie grabs the first aid kit and bears the wounds in the silence. Only now the trio's able to look at their wounds objectively - Carly's the most hurt, she's sored after a fall, her knee is rip and her arm is bleeding.

"I think it should be stitched," says Freddie uncertainly, but Carly denies.

"It's not a deep incision," she answers, "it's gonna heal soon."

Freddie keeps applying a dressing and then comes up to Sam, who's got dissected knuckle in a consequence of smashing the window. Freddie takes out the glass pieces from the wound.

"Woah, Freedo, how are you so familiar with it?" asks Sam mockingly.

"My mother taught me how to do a first aid when I was ten and since then every two months I'm forced to pass her stupid tests, so I can do this kind of things," he answers bitterly. He finishes bearing Sam's wound and then Carly comes up to him and applies a dressing on his dissected eyebrow. Her hands are trembling.

Half an hour later they get out of their messes. They sit down on the couch and they really realize everything, what happened. They sit in a silence, looking blanky ahead, feeling a pain.

"We were very lucky," Freddie says finally. "In some moment I really thought we would die."

"We managed to run away, but it doesn't mean we get over it," notices Carly.

"Freddie called the cops, and they're taking it seriously, so they're gonna snap him up," states Sam.

"He told us to not inform anybody!" resents Carly. "He told us he would kill our families! Why did you do that?"

"It was spontaneous." Freddie shrugs. "I didn't want call the police at first, I was scared as you, but then, when we were running away, and he was lying down there, unconscious... I stated we had to end it."

"We could call the police at sight as well, without going there and expose ourselves." Carly draws her knees to the chest and embraces them. "Going there made no sense."

"Not really," denies Freddie. "Now we know his motives and we know his face. We'll be able to give his description to the police if he doesn't get caught. But I highly doubt he couldn't run away, Sam threw that rock really hard."

"I didn't mean to kill them," states the girl, shrugging. For a moment she looks at still pale Carly. "Hey, kid, don't worry, we managed."

"I was really afraid we could die," answers her friend quietly. "And I'm not sure if we chose a good option, calling the police. If he escaped and knew that we brought the police on him? He told us not to do it... If he harms someone we know... again?" She looks at her friends, there's a fear in her eyes. Sam and Freddie exchange a quick gazes.

"We did, what we were supposed to do," Freddie says softly, stroking her arm. "We had to end it, Carls."

"Hey, let's check the news," Sam proposes and turns on the TV on the news channel. Carly, still pale, looks at the screen. She still can't gather herself after last events... She's still scared she's in trouble, while Sam and Freddie seems to be almost relaxed. But they didn't experience what Carly did, they didn't experience a fear about the close person... Not their relative was attacked, hers was. They don't understand what she's feeling...

On the news channel there's no information about potentionally catching a serial murderer. Sam checks few channels, but none of them informs if a police chase went well. Finally, after a fifteen minutes, on the main news channel happens suddenly breaking news and a big red frame appears and the friends read a white letters: THE SERIAL MURDERER FROM SEATTLE CAUGHT.

"See?" says Sam to Carly, who looks at the screen wide-opened eyes. "I said you he would be caught." She turns to few channels to make herself sure; suddenly on all of them this is a main subject.

"A serial murderer, knows as The Throat Ripper from Seattle, got caught in the police chase a short time ago, this is the statement issued by the chief officer from Seattle Department of Police," says the speaker. "He added that the report was coming from an anonymous informer. Establishing his identity is in a progress."

"So we'll have to go to the police voluntarily?" Sam winkles.

"It's quite logical," Freddie states.

An hour later, they're still watching news channel. They learn out that the murderer was defending himself, when the police came, but a preponderance of policemen doesn't let him to hold the pass very long. He's in the police station now, being questioned.

It's difficult to the friends, to believe, what happened today. Everything is so intense, inconceivable... It dawns on them slowly that the man who in the last two weeks was changing their lives into hell, get caught finally, they're freed. It makes Sam and Freddie feeling relaxed, but Carly can't share their mood. She's still in pain and scared, although - theoretically - there's no reason to be frightened anymore. But some misgiving still isn't leaving her.

"I'm coming home," says Sam in a certain moment.

"For sure?" Carly looks at her timidly.

"There's no reason to be scared anymore." Her friend shrugs. Seeing still worried Carly's face, she adds, "You should chillax. It's over, Carly. We won," she says and leaves a moment later. Freddie stands up too.

"I'm coming home too," he says. "Sam's right, you should relax, after all, you've been hit the most."

"How will you explain your bandage to your mother?" Carly asks and Freddie gets a little bit pale. He forgot about it at all. He looks at his friend - he's the scared one now.

"Oh geez, you're right!" He touches his face thoughtfully, where's a gauze attached by a sticking plaster - a makeshift dressing made by Carly. "Damn, what will I tell my mother?" He starts to pacing the room nervously. Carly observes him in a silence. "She'll get totally panicked, when she'll see it... Maybe I'll tell her that someone mugged me and stole my wallet?"

"No, 'cause then your mother will get totally funky, she'll take you to the police station and a half of the city will know about it soon," says Carly, almost bored.

"Yeah... It's a bad idea. Maybe I'll tell her I hit on my head, when I was in Brad's house?"

"You can stay here, if you want," Carly proposes, but Freddie spins his head.

"Nah, I told my mother I would come home at night. Okay, I'll just try to sneak into my room. Hold on, Carls," he says softly and leaves. A while later the girl hears Mrs. Benson's screams and Freddie ineffective explainations.

She gazes at the watch, it's quarter after ten. She stands up from the couch. Every inch of her body is in a pain, her knees is shaking and a cold shover goes through her back over and over again. Her cheeks are burning. She's still kinda numb, it doesn't dawn on her, what's happening. She's still seeing the face of the man, who almost killed her, a crazy face with terrible, frightening smile...

But it's all over, this is what Sam says. There's no more reason to be scared, this is what Freddie says. Everything will be okay since now. But Carly's still scared, she feels awkwardly in the empty and quiet apartment, although she stayed home at night alone so much times.

She shuffles to the bathroom, decided to take a shower to wash away the dirt and blood, but at first she locks every door. In her bedroom she takes off dirty and blooded clothes and pushes them deeply in the wardrobe. When she feels a warm water on her body, she gets relaxed and calmed. A humming water isolates her from outside and muffle her thoughts. Shower and warm water are all her world right now.

A half of hour later she comes out from the bathroom. She feels a way calmer and less sored. She starts to be tired and sleepy, so she goes to her bedroom with wet hair, in a comfy pajama. She lies down on the bed and falls asleep almost immediately.

She's got a feeling she's sleeping only a while, when a terrifying noise wakes her up. She sits on the bed and listens. After a while she hears a noise again. Her heart pounds faster, she's scared and not sleepy anymore. Carly decides to check it.

She comes out of her bedroom uncertainly. The hallway looks ordinary, except the image knocked off the wall and one of the Spencer's sculptures, quite big, which fell on the floor and the opened window. She puts them in their place and closes the window. _It's just a stronger gust of wind_, she calms herself down and decides to come back to the bed, when suddenly all the light turn out. Panicked Carly runs to the light switch and turns it up and down nervously, but any of the lamps doesn't light up. Suddenly she notices a shadows, which veils a rays of moon.

_He came back_, she thinks, funky, and runs out of the bedroom. She's sure that the murderer came back to her, he wants a revenge and will kill her... She runs downstairs - the livingroom and the kitchen are dark too. For a moment she thinks she's hearing a creaking stairs and she runs to the kitchen. She remembers that there's a torch in one of the cupboards. She grabs it and lamps the living room, checking every corner. It seems that everything is calm. She checks the stairs - nobody appears here. But Carly's still frightened and doesn't want to back to bed. She hides next to the counter and curls up with the torch held in a hand. What if the murderer came back to her? She's alone her, there's no place to escape... He'll kill her, without a doubt. She's shaking because of wet hair and scare. No way, she won't back to bed.

However, the apartment is still quiet. After a hour Carly finally get enough brave to look out from behind the counter. A darkness and a silence. But it doesn't make her calmed, because she convinces herself that the killer still can be somewhere here, waiting for her.

Suddenly she hears someone unlocking the door. Sure this is a murderer, who came back, she hides behind the counter with a squeeze. She's trembling when someone comes in the apartment. She hears someone trying to turn up the lights. Would the murderer try to light the flat up if he cut off the current before? She leans out from behind the counter and directs the beam of light at the door.

Spencer shudders in a fear and curses quietly. Carly feels relieved that it's only her brother, not the serial murderer. Despite this, she's still scared that he can hide somewhere here, but she feels a little calmer.

"Geez, Carly, you scared me like a damn," Spencer says squinting his eyes. Carly takes the beam out of his face. "Why don't you sleep yet? It's almost 5 a.m."

"Oh, really?" she utters, trying to make her voice sounding naturally. Did she really sit here so much time, curled up in fear? "I, eer... I came downstairs to drink some water, when all the lights suddenly turned out. And I... I got scared a little," she confesses.

"Maybe the lights are fused," Spencer says and comes up to the fuse box hidden behind the picture of a red robot. "Give me some light here," he mutters to Carly and she stands next to him obediently. "Sure thing," he mumbles and rummages in the fuse box. "Check it now." Carly walks to the light switch and push it. The living room lightens up and looks a way less terrifying.

"You were right," Carly says, turning off the torch. She tries to hide her nervousness.

"Everything's fine, run to your bed."

Carly lowers her head. "How was your date?" she asks, trying to postpone the time when she will supposed to stay alone. She still doesn't feel very safe. "Was it... succesfully?"

"Yeah, it was... nice," her brother answers, smiling to his memories. "You really should back to bed."

"I, eer... yeah, I should, but..." Carly doesn't want to admit she's scared. It's stupid to be scared of a darkness when you're sixteen. She takes a deep breath. "Yes, I'll go to bed. Goodnight... at 5 a.m." She smiles wanly.

She shuffles to her bedroom slowly, intensionally making this as long as it's possible. When Spencer disappears in his bedroom, Carly runs back to the living room, grabs the blanket and lies down on the couch, wrapping herself tightly. She knows it's stupid and irrational to be frightened of sleeping in your own bed, but she has experienced so much scary things recently... Now everything seems to be suspicious to her, thus she feels a little bit justified. She falls asleep quickly because of tiredness and drowsy hum of water in the bathroom.

When she wakes up few hours later, she notices that she's in her own bed by a some miracle way. She smiles drowsily, turns to her left side and falls asleep again.


	9. Chapter Eight

**A/N: Hello once again in this cloudy and quite cold day over here. :) Here comes Chapter Eight and I think it can make you... intrigued.**

**I don't have enough time now to answer to each of your reviews, so I just quickly say - thank you a lot, as usual. Especially you, green aura - I'm glad you and your amazing reviews came back. :) Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter Eight**

"I think the police will find me soon," Freddie says, when few hours later he's sitting in _iCarly_'s studio along with Sam and Carly. "It takes much time, anyway. Finding someone with having his number it's a fifteen minutes of work."

"Ya know, surely there's a lot mix-up, because the killer got caught, maybe he was questioned for a long time," states Sam. "Why don't you just go to the police station?" she asks and Freddie shrugs.

"I prefer to wait until they call me. However, I'd like this not to happen."

"Why?" Carly asks.

"If they find me, they'll call me for an interrogation and this mean they'll supposed to inform my mother about everything," the boy explains. "They'll want to ask you some questions too, so Sam's mom and Spencer also will be informed. Everybody will learn out and start to panic."

"He's caught already, so they can learn out, huh?" Sam shrugs. "They would know sooner or later. If we don't say it, this guy will. He's a psycho, he's proud of killing all these people."

"The most important thing is that all this nightmare has ended already." Freddie makes him more comfortable on his sako armchair. "Anyway, I'm scared of my mom's reaction, when she'll learn out about everything... She'll get hysterical, because I didn't say her, what's going on."

"I just wanna forget about it." Carly sighs slightly and looks around the attic. She remembers the time, when it got destroyed and her fear, when she read a message from the murderer. _Don't tell anybody_... She barely believes, that everything is over. She's happy, but it's a happiness overshadowed by a tiredness after long days of fear and stress.

"We all wanna forget it," says Freddie softly. "But we went throught the worst," he adds after a while. "We're over the hump."

When Carly thinks about it at night, when she's laying in bed, she concludes that Freddie's right. However, there's still a strange anxiety deep in her heart.

* * *

Catching The Throat Ripper is a main subject in Ridgeway High School on Monday. Students are talking about it while lessons, while breaks, next to lockers, in the hallways, inside and outside the school. Freddie, Carly and Sam try to find some isolated place to avoid this same, debated in thousand ways subject, but even in the library students and teachers are talking about the serial murderer quietly.

"Will they ever get bored?" asks irritated Sam, rolling her eyes. "How long they can bang out about this same subject?"

"It was really a huge sensation," says Freddie. "Besides, you know, Wendy... I'm not amazed that everybody is crazy about it." He shrugs.

After the lunch break, when they're still trying to pretend that it's not about them, the friends walk toward the main hallway, where Sam and Carly's lockers find, and from there to the Maths classroom. The bell has already rung, thus they hurry up, well knowing, how Ms. Briggs hates students not being punctual.

"Carly, Freddie, Sam!" They hear suddenly behind their backs. They turn around in the same moment and see principal Franklin walking toward them. "Nice to see you. Come to my office, please."

"But... we've got a lesson right now... Maths..." says Freddie, looking toward the classroom meaningfully.

"Don't worry, you're excused from lesson," principal states and leads them to his office. The friends exchange surprised glances.

"Excuse me, principal..." Sam says, when they're in the middle of way. "Could we know, what's going on? I'm saying in advance that I haven't done anything bad since our last Tuesday meeting..."

"Somebody wants to talk to you," says Mr. Franklin enigmatically.

They come in the principal's office, where a tall man wearing leather jacket is waiting for them. He's got dark, short hair and a furrow between his eyebrows. He looks intimidating and scary.

"Sit down," Mr. Franklin demands and the friends sit down on the three chairs next to desk obediently. They look at the man uncertainly. "This is detective Jones, who wants to ask you few questions," he introduces the man, who shows them a police badge. "They're at your disposal, detective," he says and leaves the office. Detective Jones sits down on the edge of the desk.

"I asked principal Franklin to let me talk to you alone. I think it'll be more comfortable to you," he says and when the friends don't react, he continues, "I won't mince words - I'm here to talk to you about The Throat Ripper from Seattle. We know that you, young man," he says to Freddie, "phoned us Saturday evening to inform us about where he was."

"T-that is true," Freddie stutters, breaking out his fingers.

"The suspect said that you and you two friends had been his purpose, but you had managed to escape. That's why I want you to tell me all your story connected with this man."

Carly, Sam and Freddie look at each other hesitantly, and then slowly tell detective Jones all truth - how they were receiving texts from unknown sender, how they were suspecting Nevel and finding out about his death, then about destroyed _iCarly_ studio and the message from the killer, how they understood that they were his next purpose, how Carly saw him at school roof, then about the e-mail, which Carly received, about Spencer's accident and finally about this, how they decided to meet with the murderer and how they managed to runaway. When they finish, they're pale and trembling, but they feel relieved, because they could throw away all hidden emotions and fears accumulated in last two weeks.

When they finish, detective Jones keeps silence for a long while, letting them get over. He keeps the poker face, but the friends feel that he's impressed because of their story.

"Thank you that you told me this," he says finally. "It's really important."

"Will you... will you tell about it our parents, sir?" asks Freddie uncertainly. "Because you know... We didn't tell about it anybody, you're the very first person, sir..."

"I understand." Detective Jones nods. "Yes, I should inform your parents, but I think that it'll be better if you do it on your own."

"Why?" asks Sam quietly. She can't imagine confessing to her mother.

"Because I'd like you to come to the police station and give an evidence. You have to recognize the perpetrator too and your parents are supposed to be with you. I wish you coming tommorow."

"Is it necessary?" Sam winces.

"Yes, miss Pucket, it's necessary," says detective Jones, looking at her sternly. Probably he already knows her name. "You're under age, thus a parent or a legal guardian needs to be with you while questioning."

"Cool," Sam mumbles. Freddie and Carly hesitant too - they feel strange, aware that they have to tell about everything once again, even if they have to tell the people who takes care of them.

"I think it's all." Detective Jones stands up. "I'm waiting for you tommorow at 7 p.m. on the police station. You can go back on a lesson."

* * *

"This cop is a freak," mutters Sam angrily, when they're sitting in the Groovy Smoothie after school. Everyone is talking about catching The Throat Ripper from Seattle over here too. "Does he really think that I'll say my mother about everything and she'll come with me to the police station? Good luck in this."

"These are the rules," answers Freddie, shrugging. "Try to imagine a reaction of _my_ mother." He smiles pale and Carly and Sam giggle slightly.

"I bet five bucks that she'll need an ambulance, when she'll learn out," Sam states and Carly kicks her leg under the table. "Ouch! What?" She looks at her friend reproachfully.

"You can't wish someone being in a hospital," reprimands her Carly, but she can't refrain herself from laughing. Sam just rolls her eyes and Freddie doesn't say anything, already used to Sam's insults at his mother.

It seems that everything is fine again.

* * *

"You should go home and talk to your mom," Carly says sternly, when Sam's shuffling behind her to the 8-C apartment.

"So you're kicking me out?" asks her friend with a hangdog expression.

"I'm not. I just mean that you have to do it, sooner or later."

"I prefer later than sooner," admits Sam. "By the way, isn't it strange that we didn't hesitate to tell this cop and we can even to tell the people we're living with?"

"You know, he's a stranger for us, maybe that's why it was easier for us. I think it's nice of him that he let us to decide and tell our guardians on our own."

"I'm not happy so much," Sam mutters.

"Of two evils... I think it'll be better, if we tell by our own," Carly responds and they're coming in the apartment. "I pity Freddie. You know his mother..." she adds quieter. "I'm home!" she yells.

"Hi, kiddie, how was school?" Spencer asks behind a sculpture with an indefinite shape.

"Boring, as usual." Carly shrugs. She feels poking in ribs and looks at Sam reproachfully, who tries to make her tell her brother the truth. Carly takes a breath, but she gives up. "Come on, Sam, we'll do our homework," she says and pull her friend to her bedroom.

"What?" asks Sam, looks at her uncertainly.

Carly moans nervously. "I don't know, I just don't know... I was about starting to say, but I suddenly get scared, I couldn't utter a single word, it was terrible. I've never had a secrets to Spencer and I hate myself, because I'm lying to him." She sits down on the bed, curled up and hides the face in her hands.

"You don't need to be scared anymore," Sam says softly, sitting down next to her. "Everything is over, get it?"

"So why didn't you go home and tell your mom about it?" asks Carly.

"Well, she's... she's my mother, and this complicates a lot." Sam shrugs, giving Carly a unruly smile. "But I'll tell her, I'll really tell her! But just... later. Geez, it's so screwed up."

"I know," replies Carly quietly. "I know."

* * *

"And? Have you told?" asks Freddie, when Carly and Sam meet him in the hallway next morning.

"No," Carly admits. "Sam even didn't go back home. And you?"

"No." Freddie spins his head. "I was trying few times, but every time something was inhibiting me, I don't even know, what... I'm kinda scared of making everyone know about it, I don't know, how to start... But it's stupid, because we shouldn't be scared anymore."

"I know," Carly says, wincing a little. "But we have to come to the police station at 7 p.m., so let's state that _right after _school we'll say it all, okay?" She looks at friends expectantly, who nod gloomily.

* * *

"Good luck," whispers Freddie friendly, when they're standing in the hallway between 8-C and 8-D apartments.

"Good luck to you too," answers Carly quietly, giving him a smile. "Spencer, we gotta talk," she announce right after closing the door. She feels that the sooner she'll say it, the sooner she'll feel better. While lesson she thought over this and now she's confident and determinated.

"Wait a sec," her brother says. He's sitting on the couch and watching TV channel, frowning.

"What happened?" Carly asks, sitting down next to him. "Some sensation again?"

"Kinda," Spencer mutters. Carly watches the program in silence, wondering, what can be going on. On the screen she sees well known speaker, who informed about that's girl death, Amber Michaels... That's when their nightmare started...

"Harold Jones, detective of Seattle Department of Police, confirmed the news that James Pitcain, also known as The Throat Ripper from Seattle, charged with seven murders, escaped from a detention center tonight. He was there since Saturday, when he got caught. Currently, the police is explaining the way of Pitcain's runaway and-"

Carly doesn't listen to speaker anymore. She feels like frozen. A cold shiver goes through her from fingers to toes. Her mind rejects the news about killer's runaway from arrest, but after a while it dawns on her that this is truth. Cruel, frightening truth - the man, who wants her dead, is free again and Carly can bet her life that he wants the revenge, because they caused his arresting. For a short while she deceived herself that she was safe, but the reality becomes different, rough...

She jumps on her feets and runs to the backpack, where's her phone. She sends a quick text to Freddie, well knowing they can't talk, when Spencer or Mrs. Benson are near.

_Do you already know?_

_Yes_, an answer comes after a while. _Can't talk now, mom's going crazy. Can't phone Sam._

"You okay?" Spencer asks.

"Yeah, sure," answers his sister quietly and unconsciously. She tries to phone Sam, but her friend doesn't answer. The next three attempts are inefficient too. Carly's heart almost stops beating, the girl expects the worst. She calls to Sam once again, but no ones picks up the phone again.

* * *

Sam is aware that, as she promised Carly, she should go home right after school and talk to her mother, but she can't resist the temptation and after lesson she goes to the Galini's Pie, where she spends her last cash.

Coming home, she walks through Rizal Park. It's deserted strangely, altough it's only 5 p.m. But she doesn't pay attention to it and goes toward her home.

In a certain moment Sam feels hard jerking. She stretches all her muscles immediately and tries to jerk up, but someone holds her strongly. She's turned around and after a while she looks into The Throat Ripper from Seattle's eyes.

"We meet again, miss Puckett," the man strains. Sam is panicked for the very first time in her life, she writhes madly, kicks the man everywhere she's able to, but he doesn't give up, still hold her in a crushing embrace. "You and your lovely friends shouldn't call the police, that wasn't I said you..."

"Let me out, your psycho," growls Sam, but the killer only laughs on her face. Sam starts to yell, hoping somebody will notice it and after a moment strong hit makes her be quiet. Sam's befuddled, she feels warm blood in the mouth, she can't see clearly.

"The time of the payment came," the murderer hisses. "At first you, and then your friends..."

Sam tries to say something, but pulsing pain of face is too strong. When she's finally able to say something, she feels strong stab in belly and after a moment in a man's hand appears a silver knife, now covered by blood. He lets her out and Sam falls down and then she more feels than hears hideous crack in the right wrist. She tries to say something, calling help, but her jaw is terribly in pain, as well as her stomach. Severe pain spreads all over her body. She tries to stand up and run to home, but she can't move up, she doesn't see anything, she hears dull crump, it's her body fallen on the floor, she's in a pain, she's in a huge pain and nothing but a pain and then comes the darkness and coldness and she doesn't see anything and doesn't feel anything.


	10. Chapter Nine

**A/N: I thought that the return of The Throat Ripper could make you surprised, but wow... your reactions made me surprised! It really seems that you like my little story. I mean all 50 (!) reviews. That was just... wow.**

**The Volcanologist - have I already said I love your reviews? :) And a little thing I had to say you earlier, but if I can do it now... you really should to write Part Two of your story 'iSavingCarly', 'cause I'm waiting for it very much!**

**jimbo74 & JJ - calm down, it's not over and much things can happen. Just saying.**

**Kyle McShade - your review made me laugh, you're a great reader! :) I don't know how the Seattle Police could make The Throat Ripper able to escape, they have to be really inefficient!**

**iShipSeddie - don't cry, hun. :)**

**green aura - your idea is really interesting, I have to admit it...**

**iamfinethanks - I totally agree with you, emotions is the most important thing in stories. :)**

**Ella - an answer for your question is in this chapter, just read. :)**

**Woah, there were kind of much people to answer. I still can't believe that so much people are reading my story! Okay, I'm not grumbling anymore, I'm leaving you alone with the Chapter. Hope it'll be a nice meeting. ;)**

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

Carly's pacing her bedroom nervously, holding the Pearphone in a hand and the worst thoughts are in her mind.

"Calm down," says Freddie in a certain moment. "Sam could just turn off or lose her phone..."

"Really?" Carly and looks at her friend ironically. "Sam's always got a phone with her, no matter what! She wouldn't lose it just like that. Something happened, Freddie," she says with worried face and starts pacing the room again.

"Why are you assuming the worst? Sam won't be pushed around, she's tough..."

"Look at the facts!" Carly runs up to him and grabs his sweater. "A serial murderer ran away from the arrest, and he was arrested because of us! Do you really think he doesn't want revenge? Sam can be his first victim!"

"So if you're so worried..." Freddie rolls his eyes, implying that Carly's overreacting. "Just go to her house."

"Okay," agrees Carly, calmer a bit. They leave the bedroom toghether.

* * *

Blurred faces, vague voices - just like she would be underwater, if not this blinding, bright light... Narrowing her eyes, she's looking around the room, where she is. She can see only the white walls. Is she in the heaven?

"Can you hear me?" she hears man's voice, vague and like from a distance. Is this God? "Can you hear me?" she hears again, but more clearly this time.

"Yes," she tries to say, but only something between whisper and grunt comes out from her throat. She feels something strange on her jaw, something what doesn't allow her open the mouth wider.

"Do you know your name?" She sees a man's face above herself. He's got dark hair, glasses, and he's wearing white clothes. He doesn't look like God. And, would God ask her about her name? He should know this kind of things... And maybe she's not in the heaven? So where the hell she is?

"Sam... Sam Puckett..." she mutters so far as it allows her to something strange on her jaw.

"Do you remember what happened?"

She frowns, tries to remind. She was coming home from Galini's Pie and she was about to talk to her mother and tell her about everything, when suddenly... he appeared, the serial murderer, she remembers his stinking breath, he hit her, at first in the face, then in the stomach and pain... overwhelming pain... suddenly she notices that she doesn't feel it anymore, it disappeared.

"I... I got attacked," she says faintly.

"Yes, you got mugged, you've got broken jaw, sprained wrist and you got stabbed, but damage of internal organs is negligible."

"Where am I?"

"In the Harborview Medical Center."

"Are you a doc?"

"Yes, I am." _So I'm not in the heaven, and he's not God_, Sam thinks. "Listen, we didn't inform anybody about your accident, because we didn't know, who you are. How old are you?"

"Sixteen."

"So we're supposed to inform your parent about your accident," the doctor says. "Can you tell me the name of your mom or dad?"

_Dad? Of course_, thinks Sam ironically. This doctor wants to phone her mother, but it's ridiculous, because she doesn't know anything... No, her mother can't learn out that Sam's in a hospital. The doctor looks at her expectantly and she's wondering frantically.

"My mom's out of town," she says quietly, playing for time. Has Carly already told Spencer about everything? Surely she has, she promised to do it right after school, before the interrogation. Have Carly and Freddie been on the police station already? By the way, what time is it? She asks the last question loudly.

"Half past six. Who takes care of you, when you're mom's out of town?"

"She will back soon... I'm spending nights in my friend's home, Carly Shay..." Sam's lying - her mother didn't drive out anywhere. But, who knows... "She lives with her brother, Spencer... Call him, please," she says.

* * *

Anxious, nervous and tired Carly comes back to the apartment. She worries about Sam more and more, because she wasn't home (there was only her mother). Sighing deeply, she takes off her boots and throws the purse on the couch. For a moment she observes Spencer talking on the phone.

"Yes... yes, I understand... of course... Yes, we'll came as soon as possible..." he ends up the call and put down the phone. When he turns around to Carly, he seems to be angry, what amazes Carly. "Can you explain me, why have I just gotten a call from Harborview with a information that Sam's there?" he asks coldly.

"Sam's in a hospital?" Carly is shocked. "What happened to her?"

"She got mugged." _So I was right_, thinks Carly triumphally, but her satisfaction disappears immediately, replaced by a scare. "They didn't want to tell me much, but apparently you've got something in common with it..."

"I don't know, what you're talking about," says the girl evasively, not looking at her brother. She rolls up sleeves of her sweater nervously.

"Carly." Spencer stands up. "For two weeks you've been looking like you'd seen a ghost, you've been behaving strangly, you've been trembling all the time and this!" He notices the scare after the stab and grabs Carly's wrist. "And now someone mugged Sam and she's asking the doctor to call me, not her own mother and in addition it turns out that you've got something in common with it. So, I please you very much, tell me finally, what the hell is going on here!"

"Fine!" A dam bursts in her heart, there are no inhibitions anymore. This moment had to come, sooner or later. "You wanna know, what's going on? So I'll tell you, what's going on!" she cries and tears appear in her eyes. "This murderer, who was operating in Seattle, The Throat Ripper, he found new purpose... us. Two weeks ago, after _iCarly_ some unknown sender was sending me texts, but they were innocent, like 'nice webshow' or 'you're pretty' and I didn't give a damn actually, but he was sending more and more, so I got angry and I turned off my phone. On Monday Sam and Freddie started to receiving this messages too and we were wondering, who could do it, and we concluded it was Nevel, so we went to his house and we learnt out he'd been murdered... And then someone destroyed _iCarly_'s studio and then we found out that is him, this killer, and we're his next purpose. And then Wendy got killed and I saw him in school, I saw him! Then he broke in our loft again and left a message on my computer, that he would kill all of us, and that message was sent from Freddie's e-mail adress and for a one terrible moment I thought he'd betrayed us... And this collision, when you got hurt... It wasn't an accident, Spence. It was him, he tried to kill you and then we already knew that he's able to hurt us and our loved ones, so we decided to meet up with him. This Saturday evening, when you had a date with Carrie, we were in the old factory in the suburbs and he was there too, he was waiting for us... He wanted to kill us, but we managed to run away and thus I've got this scar on my arm. Then he got caught and we really thought it was over, and in school we talked to detective and he told us to tell our guardians about everything and come to the police station give an official evidence. We didn't know how to tell you, what happened and the interrogation had to be today, but the murderer ran away and attacked Sam. He wants revenge that he called the police, he wants to kill us! I thought that it's over..."

When Carly finishes, she's shaking and the tears are streaming down her face. She embraces herself and looks hesitantly at Spencer, who's standing stock-still. She is relieved that she told him everything, she feels better, but on the other hand, she's scared of brother's reaction. For a long while they're keeping a full of emotions silence, when Carly tries to calm down and Spencer tries to set in order his thoughts.

"Carly..." he says uncertainly in some moment. "Carly why didn't you tell me this all on the very beggining?"

"I couldn't, don't you understand?!" she says in a loud and squeaky way. "He told us to not tell anybody, he threatened us that if we would tell anyone, he would kill our close people! I was protecting you, but without effect, because he almost killed you!" she burst into tears and lowers head. She feels exhausted, like she would've just finished a marathon, but she feels relieved at once.

"How come didn't I notice it earlier..." Spencer starts pacing the room. "I should've realise the truth..."

"It's not your fault," Carly says, looking at him. She can't stand the thought that her brother could think that he's the guilty one.

"Yes, it is! I'm your guardian and my damn duty is protecting you, and in last two weeks you were in danger about million times, you could die, Carls! Can you imagine, what father or grandad would say, if you-"

"But I'm alive." The girl comes up to Spencer and grabs his hands, looking into his eyes. "It's not important now. Let's go to the hospital to learn out, how's Sam... please. Park the car out and I'll pick up Freddie."

"F-fine," Spencer agrees, still doubtful, comes in the elevator and rides down. Carly's shocked, seeing, how did he react. She thought he would panic, but not that he would think it was his fault. He could do nothing... Carly throws away this gloomy thoughts and leaves the loft.

She knocks on the 8-D door and after a while Mrs. Benson answers the door. She's pale and her eyes are red. When she notices Carly, her face winces in anger. "Oh, it's you," she strains. "The girl, who almost killed my son!"

"What are you talking-" Carly starts, but changes topic, not even wanting to understand complicated Mrs. Benson's thoughts. "Is Freddie home? I have to talk to him."

"I don't think so," the woman says coldly, "that you've got anything to talk to Freddie. It would be better, if you weren't talk to my son never again."

Carly frowns. Mrs. Benson has never liked her, but what does she mean this time? After a while she realizes. "Freddie has told you everything already?" she asks cautiously. "About The Throat Ripper and... about us?"

"Yes, he did," Mrs. Benson answers and her voice suddenly becomes higher and more squezzy. "I know about the man who wanted to kill my son! I can't believe that he didn't tell me it earlier! My little Freddie, he was so in dangerous... You caused everything, you and your stupid webshow, you hussy! If you weren't force Freddie to do it with you, it would never happened-"

"Mrs. Benson!" Carly yells and a second later she feels stupid - although Carly doesn't like Mrs. Benson and she called her 'a hussy', she's still an adult and Carly knows it's rude to yell at adults. She takes a breath and says calmer, "I really have to talk to Freddie. It's _extremely_ important."

"Carly?" Freddie emerges from behind his mother, before she manages to say anything. "What are you doing here?"

"Sam's in a hospital." Carly would like to tell it Freddie face to face, but she doesn't want to waste time. "Spencer and me are going to the hospital to learn out what how is she, do you go with us?"

"What... in a hospital?" Freddie gets pale. "Of course I'm going with you."

"Freddie!" resents his mother. "You want to leave home? After this, what happened? No way!"

"Come on, mom, nothing bad will happen to me in a hospital, right?" says Freddie a little bit agressively, what amazes Carly. The boy grabs his jacket and ignoring Mrs. Benson telling him to stay, walks with Carly to the elevator. "What exactly happened?" he asks, when they're alone and riding down to the hall.

"Someone from hospital phoned Spencer and said that Sam had been mugged, but didn't say anything more."

"Why did they called Spencer and not her mom?" Freddie raises his eyebrows.

"I've got no idea." Carly brushes her hair by fingers nervously. "Is it important? The important thing is that we know, who did it. The Throat Ripper, he wants revenge!" she says, scared.

"Yes, it's possible," says the boy calmly, like he was wondering about some mathematic solution. "We caused his catching and he's looking for revenge, that's why he attacked Sam. He may attack us too," he realises and looks at Carly, frightened.

"I know..." the girls says, embracing herself. "I hope the police will catch him again soon."

"I wonder, how come he managed to escape from arrest," says Freddie. "I doubt he was left on his own, he probably had a guards...

Before Carly manages to answer (no logical respond comes to her mind, though), the elevator stops in the hall. They walk outside hastily, not wanting to wake Lewbert up (he's snoring so loud that it seems that even cannon shot couldn't wake him up). Spencer is already waiting for them in the car.

They ride shortly, maybe even too shortly. When they're riding Spring Street above I-5 highway, Carly looks at the car down below gloomily. How does Sam feel? What this scary man has done to her? What is his name? James Pitcain... A name, which will stay in her mind forever...

They turn into 9th Avenue, where is the Harborview Medical Center. Carly jumps out from the car as first, wanting to see Sam as soon as it's possible. She comes into the hospital along with her friend and brother. Freddie walks toward reception, Carly toodles behind him. They wait few minutes in a queue and then they talk to the receptionist. After a while they learn out, where Sam occurs.

"What, if they don't let us see her?" asks anxious Freddie, when they're in the right hospital flank. "We're not Sam's family, after all."

"But she told them to call _us_." Carly even doesn't want to think that she wouldn't be able to see her friend. She calls at doctors room, where two doctors are sitting. "Erm, excuse me... My name is Carly Shay and-"

"Hey, aren't you the host of this funny webshow, _iCarly_?" asks the younger doctor.

"Yes, I am." Carly doesn't want to talk about it now. "I would like to see my friend, Sam Puckett. Could you say me, where does she occure?"

"I'm her doctor," says the second man, dark-haired, with glasses. "I'm Freeman. You're Sam's guardian, right?" he asks Spencer, who shrugs.

"Kind of," he mumbles.

"Follow me." Dr. Freeman leaves the doctors room and Freddie, Spencer and Carly toodles behind him. "Sam is seriously hurt, the attacker broke her jaw, wrist and stabbed her, but her internal organs aren't damaged, fortunately. She's also battered, but I think that in a week the wounds should heal. Her jaw looks worse, but we're doing our job and it should be better very soon."

Carly shudders, hearing all these horrible things. Poor, battered Sam with broken jaw... They stop next to door with number 109.

"Here Sam occurs," the doctor says. "I wish only two of you coming inside. Don't make her tired, please, she should rest a lot. If there was any problem, I would be in the doctors room." He moves away in the direction they came from.

"Go to her," says Spencer to Freddie and Carly and sits on one of the chairs beside wall. The friends exchange looks full of fear and then Freddie opens the door.

The room is quite small, painted in cold blue. From everywhere they hear beeping machines controlling patients' vital functions. There are four beds here, two of them are occupied. On one of them sleeps a dark-haired girl with leg in a cast, and on the second one Sam lies. She's got a bandage on her jaw, her hair is disheveled and her right wrist is in a cast. She tries to give the friends a smile, but she only winces.

"Sam!" Carly feels incredible relieved, when she sees her friend. She runs up to her and can't restrain to hug her, but she tries to do it as gently as it's possible. "How are you?"

"Suckish," Sams mumbles, moving her jaw with effort. Every said word causes pain, but she doesn't to admit it. "Freddork, nice to see ya... Your mother let you out after this all?" she asks ironically.

"She had no choice," replies the boy rebelliously. "Do you remember... what happened?" he asks, lowering his voice and looking at her meaningfully. Carly pricks up her ears too.

"Not really," mumbles Sam. "And you... have you told? Have you been on the... police station?" she winces, feeling tears of pain in eyes. But even now, when she's laying on a hospital bed, battered, she doesn't tell it her friends, she doesn't show her pain.

"No, we haven't," Carly says, spinning her head. "When we learnt out that you had been attacked, we came here immediately and we don't care about any interrogation. But I have told Spencer about all and Freddie has told his mom. She got hysterical," she adds, looking at Freddie, and he smiles slightly. The boy smiles too and even on Sam's face a little smile appears. For a while they're feeling like before, when a Maths exam was their biggest worry. After a moment they realize that they're in a hospital, and somewhere outside there is a serial murderer looking for a revenge, who wants their deaths.

"Sam, but are you sure... are you sure it was him?" Freddie asks cautiously, looking at the girl with leg in a cast, but she's still sleeping.

Sam nods. "Yeah, him..." she mumbles. "He wants... revenge... so watch out..."

Before Carly and Freddie say anything, dr. Freeman comes in with two men in police uniforms. Detective Jones is one of them.

"I'm afraid you have to leave now," the doctor says, "the men want to talk to Sam."

"No, let them stay," oppose detective Jones, raising his hand. "They're implicated in this too and they had to be questioned today, so let's it at one time." He comes up to Sam's bed and Carly and Freddie step aside automatically.

"But," says Freddie uncertainly, "you said that our parents need to be while interrogation, and my mom and Sam's mom aren't here..."

"The situation is exceptional, so we can turn a blind eye," the detective answers.

For a next fifteen minutes Freddie and Carly are telling their story connected with The Throat Ripper and detective Jones' assistant are noticing their words. Then Sam unclearly tells everything she remembers from an attack. There's not much, but every her word is carefully written down.

"You're free," states detective Jones, when Sam finishes, not being able to hide her pain no more. The tears stream down her face and worried Carly grabs her friend's hand.

"Will you catch him?," she asks by trembling voice. "Do you understand, sir... he wants a revenge now, and we don't feel safe..."

"You'll get a safeguard," detective Jones promises and Carly and Freddie exchange surprised glances.

"I think that we all should leave now," says dr. Freeman. "Sam really needs taking a rest and you can visit her tommorow morning."

Policemen comes out with dr. Freeman. The friends saying their goodbyes hastily and comes out too. Spencer's still waiting. He talks on the phone, looking at the policemen anxiously. Seeing his sister and Freddie he ends the call and hides his phone in the pocket.

"How's Sam?" he asks.

"She looks bad," says Carly gloomily. "Did those cops talk to you?"

"Yeah... They asked if I'm your guardian, if I agree to question you and et cetera. They mentioned a safeguard...?" He looks at them uncertainly.

"Sam was attacked by The Throat Ripper. Apparently he wants a revenge, so we have to be protected," Freddie explains.

Spencer doesn't answer, still disoriented by this all. It's too much for him, he wants to go back home and think over it all in peace.

"I'm fed up with this day, go back home." Carly says loudly his thoughts. They walk the hallway toward the exit. "Who were you talking to?" she asks in a certain moment.

Spencer wonders if he should tell her. Surely yes, but at once he know that Carly won't be happy - despite this, she would be delighted in every other situation. "To dad," he admits finally. "He has just learnt out about the serial killer in Seattle, he didn't have a connection with world before. He asked, if we're okay..."

"You didn't tell him, what's going on, right?" Carly looks at her brother with anxiety and anger.

"Actually, I did."

"What?!" the girl yells. "Why... You shouldn't tell him-"

"Carly, it doesn't matter now!" he cuts her off. "Protecting you is the most important thing now, nevermind, how much people will know about it. And dad is a person, who should've know from the very beginning." _So do I_, he wants to add, but he refrains.

"How did he react?" Carly has no power to make Spencer a scene. To be honest, she's happy she'll see dad.

"I'm not sure... I think he got panicked and angry at once... Anyway, he told me that he's stationed near Queen Charlotte Islands, so he takes a small airplane and he'll be here in a hour."

"Oh, man," moan Carly. She's happy she'll see dad, but on the other hand she knows that dad is scared of this situation (and who's not?) and he'll play hell. Even thinking of it, she feels more tired.

They come out of the hospital. It's almost 7.30 and a dark twilight is fallen already, it's colder too. Carly buttons her denim jacket and behind Freddie and Spencer she goes to the car. Her friend sits on the back seat and Carly takes a seat next to driver.

"Poor Sam," Freddie says, when they leave a parking place and ride through 9th Avenue. "She got hit so hard. Then this psycho even nearly hit her by a car, then she smashed her hand, when we were running away from him and she's so battered now..."

"Oh yeah, I remember, when she told us about this car," Carly answers. "I've seen her so nervous never before. And Pitcain was driving this same car who cause the collision on Union Street?" She gazes at Spencer, who doesn't answer, just stare at the rearview mirror with anxiety. "What?" she asks.

"I don't know how that car looked exactly..." he says, almost all the time looking at the mirror. "But could it be black Audi with darkened windows?"

"Yeah, it was a car like this," agree Freddie and Carly. "But how do you know?" the boy adds.

"Because it's following us."


	11. Chapter Ten

**A/N: When I'm publishing new Chapter, I think about the things, which should I write in the Author's Note. But nothing comes to my mind and it makes me feel... awkward.**

**iCarlyWriter - thank you so much for a such a nice review. :)**

**The Volcanologist - I think every writer loves putting a suspence and cliffhangers in his stories. ;) And I'm really glad you updated your story, I'll review it soon, be sure!**

**jimbo74 - thanks. I couldn't kill Sam... just no. She's one of my favourite characters. :)**

**green aura - I really love your ideas for my story. They give me a lot of inspiration.**

**Kyle McShade - yes, I definitely LOVE cliffhangers! *evil laugh* I'm glad you like 'my' Spencer. Of course, I love weird and wacky side of him (and who doesn't?), but in this story I want to make him much more mature than ever before. You'll see in this Chapter.**

**iShipSeddie - remember to breathe, please. ;)**

**What about the Chapter? Well, I can say it's a next chapter with many action inside. I also can say that in this chapter there's gonna be a HUGE Spencer's moment! Although I think this chapter is quite unreal, I didn't change it, 'cause I realize that in the 'iCarly' world _everything_ is possible. ;)**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter Ten**

"What?!" Carly and Freddie turn around at the same time and look out of the window. Indeed, they notice a black car right behind them. The windows are darkened and they don't see the driver, but they don't need to see him to know, who is he. "What are we gonna do?" asks panicked Carly. She loses all her tiredness in one second, an adrenaline boils in her veins, getting to the brain and make him work intensively.

"I think we should ride to Bushwell as far we can," Freddie suggests.

"He'll follow us anyway," squeezes Carly. They feel a bump at once - black Audi hits their car. "He's gonna kill us," scared girl whispers, sighing deeply. Along with Freddie she looks at Spencer, waiting for his reaction. Meanwhile, Audi hits the car again. "What will we do?" she asks once again, looking at her brother, frightened.

"Nothing," says Spencer calmly. "We'll get back to Bushwell and wait for dad."

"You think it's possible?" asks Freddie in anxious, turning around to look at the black Audi right behind them again. "I'm not sure if he let go..."

"I'm not sure if he attack us on a park lot near to one of the biggest skyscrapers in Seattle." Spencer tries to make his voice calm, but Carly notices he clenches his hands on the steering wheel.

Before anyone manages to say anything, Carly's phone is ringing. The girl grabs him and opens her eyes widely in a shock.

"What?" Freddie peeks in above her arm.

"Unknown number," she whispers. She feels anxious friend and brother's gazes at herself. "It's him."

"Accept it, but turn up the speakerphone," suggests Freddie.

Carly's doubtful for a while, but finally she pushes the accept button. The car is filled by murderer's voice, "There's a bomb under your car. Ride toward old, unused Sea-Tac lane or I'll push a little red button... and your lovely car will 'boom'." They hear a demoniacal laugh, which made their blood frozen. After a moment the killer ends up the call.

All of them are extremely scared. Carly opens her eyes widely and looks at Freddie, then at Spencer. They are both pale, the girl guesses that she's probably too.

"You think he can telling truth?" asks Freddie quietly by a breaking in fear voice.

"That man is able to do anything," Carly answers. "We can't risk."

"Putting a bomb under a car doesn't take five minutes... How come he did it, remembering that he's the most wanted man in a whole state?" wonders Spencer.

"Maybe he's not working alone," Freddie suggests. "I think we should ride where he told us..."

"Carly, send dad a text and tell him to come to the Sea-Tac." Spencer's clearly doubtful, but changes the direction and after a moment they're riding I-5 with the black Audi right behind them. Freddie and Carly turn around every few seconds, even Spencer looks in the rearview uncertainly.

"I'm scared," Carly whispers, when they're turning toward Sea-Tac. No one answers her.

They ride in two-miles-long Sea-Tac lane, which hasn't been used for few years. Nowadays young drivers learn how to drive here or thrills fans organise night races. The lane is empty, but Freddie isn't sure if is it a coincidence, or the murderer arranged everything. The boy wonders, how come this man manage to do this all - at first those murders, then escaping from arrest, now following them... How come didn't the police catch him? If this man doesn't left any mark? But it's impossible...

Suddenly Spencer starts to ride much faster and then, even more suddenly, turns left, parking the car crosswise the lane. Freddie, who didn't expect this, hits his face in the bolster and a moment later he feels pulsing pain in his nose and warm blood above his upper lip.

"Hide behind the car," says Spencer quickly, before Freddie manages to say anything.

"What are you going...?" starts Carly by a scared voice, but her brother only spins his head and tells them to leave once again. Both of them flit obediently behind the car in the moment, when Pitcain parks his car crosswise the way. "Oh my God, what happend to you?" whispers scared Carly, when they're crouching behind the car.

"I hit the bolster," mutters Freddie. _And I left my septum there, I suppose_, he adds in his thoughts gloomily. "It's nothing big, shh" he shuts her up, when Carly open the mouth to add something.

Slowly and cautiously they look above the car and see Spencer, who's standing opposite Pitcain grabbing a gun in his hand. Carly feels a lump of fear and anxious in her throat.

"There's no bomb under the car, am I right?" asks Spencer, narrowing his eyes. He tries not to show his fear to the man standing opposite him at all costs. He's got no plan, nothing specific comes to his mind. He know only one thing - he must protect Carly. He would've never think that he would able to die for her, but it seems life verifies all our plans.

"Of course you are." Pitcain smiles in a terrifying way, there's a madness in his eyes. Spencer thinks that this man is probably very mentally sick, maybe it would justify his behaviour... But is anything able to justify murdering seven people (Spencer hopes it won't be ten people soon)?

Pitcain raises his gun. _He mustn't get closer to kids, he mustn't get closer to Carly_, thinks Spencer frantically.

"It was such a clever idea," he says, playing for a time. It's the only thing what comes to his mind - postpone the inevitable. Dad's is on the way, he'll be here soon... Spencer puts all his hopes in dad. But before he comes, he must protect Carly.

"Like all my ideas." Mad man's face brights up in complacency.

"You had to work hard to do this all," Spencer says slowly. For a second in his mind appears a thought, that if he butter him up, he'll let them go away, but this thought disappears as fast as it appeared. It's stupid... that man killed seven innocent teenagers cold-blooded, he won't hesitate to add some new people to this list.

"Oh, yeah," admits Pitcain, still smug. "I have to admit, sometimes I really needed to toil in to stay unrecognized... especially, when I escaped from arrest. But the police is so inefficient... I can ride next to the police station and they won't even notice that they've got the most wanted man in whole state just for asking." He smiles contemptuously.

"And you were working alone?" Where's dad? Did he receive Carly's text? Did he notice that they're in a mortal danger right now?, Spencer wonders and feels a cold shiver through all his body. Pitcain still aims at him by gun, he may shoot in every moment... But - surprisingly - Spencer's not afraid of death (he would like to stay alive, though), he's only afraid that something bad can happen to Carly. _Carly needs to be safe_.

"Yes, I was working alone. All those great killers who had murdered hundreds of people and gotten caught, were making one big mistake - they shared their plans with somebody. I don't need nobody, my brain is enough."

"But you're telling me this all." What should he do? How can he protect himself from a man with a gun? If he was Chuck Norris, he could catch the bullets... Spencer wants to laugh, but when he looks at gun's barrel pointed at him, he changes his mind. He knows he can die in every moment and if somebody today's morning told him he would be in this kind of situation, he would laugh at him. All events of last hours beg to tame and organize them, but there's no time now, now there's only him, the killer with his gun and a cold wind.

"Dead people can keep secrets." Pitcain smiles ominously once again. _Actually, my life isn't so bad_, Spencer thinks. He remembers those time, when - usually after few beers, in the Socko's flat - he was grumbling at his life, at the fact that he'd never had a girlfriend longer than six months, at fact that some foreign kids are running in his apartment all the time... but in the other hand, living with Carly makes him happy. His little cute sister he loves more than life. He's able to die for her. _Literally_, he adds, looking at the barrel.

"So... you're going to... kill me now?" He swallows in anxiety, his heart start to pound faster. If Pitcain... just theoretically... hoping it won't happen... but if Pitcain kill him, Spencer, will he keep kids alive? _Carly needs to be safe_. Why has he chosen them? What's his purpose? Spencer thinks that this man is so mentally sick that he's murdering just for joy...

"Oh, yeah. I think so." Spencer feels a cold shiver coming through all his body. He won't survive, he won't run away, there's no escape way, but even if there was, he wouldn't leave Carly. He doesn't want to die, but he thinks that dying for a loved person is a beatiful way to die. "You're a good man, aren't you?" asks Pitcain suddenly and Spencer raises his eyebrows. "You're able to die for your cute baby sister, am I right?"

"Kill me, but not her," blurts out Spencer, not aware that face of Carly hidden behind the car is shining due to tears.

"Aww, it's so sweet," the killer says, but there's no smile on his face anymore. He moves the gun in the right, then down.

Spencer knows, what it means.

"RUN!" he yells and starts running. He glances over his shoulder hastily and sees Carly and Freddie running in the opposite direction.

Pitcain shoots few times and a moment later air is teared by a huge explosion and the car is ablaze. A power of explosion knocks Carly and Freddie back around five yards. They try to hide their faces in arms to minimalise wounds, but they fall hardly on the ground. Carly feels piercing pain in arm and from Freddie's nose spouts blood again and he feels a pain on his knees. Both of them, falling, beat their bones and rip skin and their bodies starts to blood out.

"Carly!" The girls hears a frightened voice of her brother. She wants to answer him that she's okay, but she can't move, every inch of her body is in pain.

"COME BACK!" screams Pitcain, losing control. Carly and Freddie stands up slowly and goes toward him obediently, pale in fear, looking at the gun.

Spencer stops and turns around. No, it can't end like that, he can't allow kids, he can't allow Carly to be nearer this psycho...

"Carly, don't-" he tries to say, but loses voice, when Pitcain turns around to him. His face looks like Halloween mask, it's beastly twisted in a madness.

"SHUT UP!" he yells and aims at Spencer.

Everything happens in one second.

There's a gunshot, Spencer falls at the ground, moaning, Carly screams, frightened and wants to run to her brother, Freddie grabs her, the girl is squirming and struggling.

_No, it's impossible_, she thinks, scared. _It couldn't happen_... She tries to yank few more times, but Freddie is stronger and doesn't let her. Why is he doing it? They can't leave Spencer... All her thoughts focus at him, for a while she forgets that there's a man opposite her who's aiming at her by gun, she wants to be next to Spencer, she calls his name, but he doesn't reply, Carly doesn't see his face, blood is boiling in her veins, her cheeks are burning, she feels incredibly mad at this man, at the killer who made so much harm in her life, who attacked her best friend, her brother and wants to kill her now, but she won't allow it, for the first time in her life she feels so furious, she's ready to pick this man's eyes out with bare hands, but Freddie's still holding her and she can't proceed a single step, _let me out, Freddie, you don't understand_...

"Shh, Carly, calm down," whispers Freddie to her ear. "If you don't calm down, he'll kill us..."

But Carly doesn't care anymore, she doesn't give a damn, what will happen, because if Spencer is dead, her life doesn't make any sense anymore...

"Do you hear your friend, Carly?" asks Pitcain by a ironically and sweet voice. "Calm down or I'll kill you... what makes no sense, 'cause I'm gonna kill you anyway..."

"So do it!" Carly yells. She's not controlling herself, emotions gain the upper hand. "You've wanted to kill us for two weeks, so do it now! And maybe you're scared? Are you scared?!" she cries so loud she's feeling a pain in throat. "You're scared, you're scared through all your life, you think you're hero, but you're just a coward, 'cause you can't fight with your problems! You coward, you coward, YOU COWARD!" she yells and tears stream down her face.

Freddie's surprised, when he notices, that the murderer looks like Carly had hit his head by a saucepan. He's amazed and scared of his friend's behaviour - he's never seen her like this. Sam is always the furious one, but not Carly, Carly, who always looks for a rational explanation and compromise. And now this peaceful and nice Carly is crying out and wants to fight with a man, who shot to her brother...

Freddie, still holding Carly, looks at Spencer. He's kneeling at the asphalt, embracing himself and his head is lowered. Intrigued Freddie notices that there's no blood on his body, but there should be, Spencer has been shot in a stomach...

"You...?" the killer utters, able to saying again. "You're calling me a coward? I've killed seven people, I've hurt much more and you're calling me a coward, you..." He can't find adequate words.

Carly yells something back, but Freddie's focused on Spencer. The boy is surprised, when Spencer stands up and then Freddie gets it.

Spencer is _pretending_.

Freddie with all his strenght restrain to say something. He doesn't know, what Spencer is planning, but since he has noticed that he's okay, he feels relieved.

If you may feel relieved, when someone is pointing at you with a gun.

_I'm begging, end it all_, he thinks. _Anybody, please, come and save us_...

"Nobody will save you," the killers says, like's he's been reading in his mind. "Who will find you on this unused airport lane? The police? But when they'll come, it'll be too late..."

_We're going to die now_, Freddie thinks, but he's strangely relaxed. She feels that Carly stops yanking, she's getting calm to, when she sees Spencer standing up - and when she knows this is the end.

Freddie doesn't want to die, but can anybody decide about his death? He's only sixteen and the whole world is open to him, but Freddie is calm. The only thing he wants now, it's ending all of it. He feels that Carly wants to fight, but it's overshadowed by her fear.

"I'm curious, what is the dying like?" says Pitcain, like they'd been sitting and drinking a afternoon tea. "I don't know, I've never died..."

He aims at Carly's chest. A bullet will pierce her heart and then Freddie's heart. He'll die, holding in his arms the girl, who he's in love with and who has never been in love with him. It's a nice death.

The murderer puts his finger on the trigger.

A scream of scare stick in Carly's throat.

Freddie closes his eyes.

He hears the gunshot and expects a piercing pain, but - surprisingly, he feels nothing. So? It's already done? Is death really so easy and painless? He still feels Carly's body in his arms. Is it possible that he'll come with Carly to Heaven and they'll be together forever?

"Oh my God!" he hears Carly's frightened scream. Are they already in the Heaven?

He's hesitant for a while, but finally gets brave enough and opens the eyes.

He's still standing on unused Sea-Tac lane, he's still holding Carly and he's still feeling a cold air on his neck.

He's still alive.

But how come...?

He looks at the place, where Pitcain was standing just a moment earlier. He's lying on the ground now, with the face pressed to cold asphalt and with arms twisted on his back. Spencer's crouching on him, pressing killer's wrists by a knee. He grabs Pitcain's gun.

But what...? How...?

"Spence!" Carly yells. Her brother turns around to her and spins his head. Carly stops half-step obediently. Spencer notices that he's grabbing a gun in his hand and throws it away, like it's been poisoned. Pitcain jerks furiously, trying to break away, but Spencer - surprisingly - seems to be stronger than him. He hits him in occiput and make Pitcain unconscious.

"How did he.. what...?" utters Freddie, still can't organize his thoughts. How come didn't Pitcain shoot them, if he was pointing just at Carly and him?

Carly feels that her knees are bending. She gets overhelmed by strange weakness suddenly, like all events of evening culminated and hit her with twice power. Dark cloak of pain covers her. She winces and falls to the knees. She's trying to put her hands on the ground, but she can't feel hard and rough asphalt, like the earth had fled from her feets. Someone probably grabs her arms, she hears a siren, she sees blurred, pulsating blue and red lights and then she tilts and falls into darkness, finally giving her body a break.


	12. Chapter Eleven

**A/N: Okay. So. This is now. Chapter Eleven, the last regular chapter of this story (I decided to publish a short epilogue, I'll do it in few minutes, so you'll be able to read the Chapter and Epilogue at once). Woah. This makes me excited. How about you?  
**

**The Volcanologist - I love him too, true story. :)**

**jimbo74 - I assume it's a positive review. ;)**

**Kyle McShade - I'm really glad you like my OOC Spence. And you'll learn out how's Carly right now. Does it make you happy? I hope so. :)**

**AnMaRo412 - thank you a lot, it's really nice of you!**

**green aura - this chap answers all your questions. :)**

**JennetteNath89 - thanks. I'll definitely keep writing, I just love it.**

**iamfinethanks - you're awesome, girl. :) And I'll tell you a secret - it's my favourite moment too!**

**And what can I say more... enjoy. :)**

* * *

**Chapter Eleven**

When Carly finally gets conscious again, she notices that she's lying in a white room with white lights. After a while she hears well known beeping and a voice, "Nice to see you here, Carls!"

She turns her heavy head left. There's Sam lying in a nearby bed and grinning teeth to her friend as much as allows her a bandage on her jaw. Carly blinks few times. She's numb and doesn't understand everything.

"Am I in Harborview...?" she asks quietly, more herself than Sam. "What time is it?"

"Dunno, about eight on the morning?" Her friend shrugs slightly.

Carly tries to remember last events, which are in her mind. Pitcain pointing at them with a gun, kneeling Spencer, missed shoot, overhelmed pain, blue and red lights and darkness...

She looks at Sam again, but her friend has fallen asleep already. Carly smiles faintly. Sam always can fall asleep just in five seconds.

Suddenly she feels a movement by her right side. A cold shiver of fear pierces her and as fast as she can she turns in this direction. She's scared it may be Pitcain, but no, it's just Spencer, he's sitting at her bed with head leaned against wall and sleeps. He was sitting here all night surely... Carly feels moved. She pokes the brother in arm gently, waking him up.

"What...?" he asks, sleepy.

"Nothing," Carly calms him down hastily. "Everything is fine. Is it, right?" she asks a little bit hesitantly.

"Yes." Spencer rubs a sleep away his eyes. His hair is disheveled, and on his cheeks there's a dark shadow of facial hair and Carly starts to pity him immediately. He's been here all night long...

"What... what exactly happened, since I... since I've become unconscious?" asks the girl.

"Dad arrived a little while later. When he received your text that we would be at the airport, he noticed something was wrong and called the police. They came and caught Pitcain and took you and Freddie here."

"And you? Why didn't they take you here?"

"'Cause I'm alright, kiddy."

"I'm alright too!" states Carly insolently, crossing her arms on chest. Spencer looks at her expectantly, but gives her a little smile. "I'm just battered a little, but I don't need being in a hospital, do I? Where's Freddie?" she asks, when her brother doesn't answer.

"In the next room. Mrs. Benson is with him, dad came round too and made sure everything's okay, and I was here."

"All night?" asks Carly reproachfully and Spencer only shrugs. "Dad's here?"

"Yes, he went to buy some breakfast."

They're keeping silence for a while. Carly tries to organize events of last evening, but when she remembers them, bad memories appears in her mind. She looks at Spencer again.

"You saved my life," she says quietly and seriously.

"Carly-"

"You _really_ saved my life," she cuts him off well knowing that Spencer wants to underestimate all thing. That's just him. "If you didn't knock Pitcain down, we would-"

"Don't think about it now." He's the one who cuts off this time. "Everything's fine now."

"What happened to him? You know... to Pitcain?" Carly's voice is trembling every time she says his name. She thinks it'll be trembling forever.

"He's in the arrest with really huge guard, he won't run away again. It seems that his lawsuit will start soon... when you'll get interrogated. I heard he may receive the death penalty."

"Oh." Carly doesn't know, what to say. Theoretically, she should be happy that the man, who killed so many innocent people and almost killed few more will end his life, but on the other hand, she feels strange thinking about death of this man.

The door opens and Col. Shay comes into the room with a bag full of sandwiches. Sam, like she felt the smell of ham, wakes up and looks at rolls expectantly.

"Hey, snug bug." Mr. Shay comes up to his daughter and strokes her hair. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine." Carly clings to father. She hasn't seen him for three months and she's been missing him. "When will I go back home?"

"Maybe even today," replies Mr. Shay and Carly gives him a smile, relieved. "Hello, Sam," he adds, when he notices the girl. "Hungry?"

"Always!"

"Sam, can you bite already?" Carly looks at her bandage meaningfully. Her friend moans and falls on the pillows.

"I'm sorry," says Mr. Shay sympathetically. "I think I saw your mom on the hallway."

"My mother?" yells Sam and winces in pain. "How... my mother? She had to stay unaware..."

"She needs to find out about everything sooner or later," explain Mr. Shay softly and Sam only groans again, irritated. Her mother never cares about her, so why does she need to know about it all? Sam doesn't want explain her mother, why she's in hospital. At all.

"Dad, can I see Freddie?" Carly asks.

"Well, I'm not sure, honey..."

"Daddy, _please_," says the girl with emphasis, looking at her father imploringly. After short while Mr. Shay starts to become soft - he'd like Carly to stay in bed, but she wants to see her friend so much... He glances at his son, looking for a support.

"If the doctor say yes, you can go. One of them is doing a round right now, right?" states Spencer, putting a chin on his fist and looks at Colonel, who nods.

"You should go home and sleep," says Carly firmly, seeing her brother being tired. He starts to taking an issue immediately.

"Spence, Carly's right," says Mr. Shay. "Listen what your old man is saying once in your life and go home." He gives him a little smile. "You've been here all night, now I'm gonna stay with Carly. By the way, don't you have to go to this law firm, when you're doing your legal application, as you said me?" he adds, looking at him a little bit suspiciously and Carly and even sulky Sam raises eyebrows.

"Erm, yeah, I think so," mumbles Spencer, clearly crestfallen. Carly can't believe that her brother still didn't tell their father he dropped the law school out, but she wants to laugh at once. But, because of siblings loyalty, she keeps straight face.

"Yeah, Spence, you have to go to this _law firm_, where you're doing an _internship_..." Sam can't restrain and if she wasn't so battered, she would start to laugh, but only a poorly hidden giggle comes out of her throat. Carly lowers her head to make her hair cover her face nad hide a smile. It's so beautiful feeling, being able to laugh again...

Spencer stands up obediently, glances at Sam and Carly resentful, and leaves. The friends exchange amused gazes.

Dr. Freeman comes in the room few minutes later. "Good morning," he greets. "How are you, girls?"

"Poorly," mumbles Sam.

"Fine," answers Carly at the same moment. "Excuse me, could I leave my bed? I'm really fine..."

Dr. Freeman looks at her patient's card cautiously, before he answers. "It seems that you're only battered a little bit, without internal injuries," he says. "Yes, you can leave bed, but not for so long."

"Thank you," replies grateful girl. "When will I come home?"

"At noon we'll do you a few tests, and if the results are positive, you'll be home this evening."

"And when will _I_ go home?" asks Sam. Dr. Freeman comes up to her bed and looks at patient's card.

"You're better than yesterday, but you'll be here for a five more days, maybe a week," he states and Sam rolls the eyes, offended.

Before anyone manages to say anything, the door opens suddenly and Ms. Puckett comes in the room with an angry face. Sam opens her eyes widely, when she sees her. "Samantha Puckett!" shouts Ms. Puckett, what doesn't fit her at all and walks toward her daughter.

"I'll get some tea," mutters Mr. Shay hastily and stands up.

"I'll go with you," says Carly and also stands up. It's a little bit painful, but she can handle it to not hear an argument between Sam and her mom. When they're leaving, they hear Sam growling 'don't call me Samantha!' and Dr. Freeman trying to calm them down, so Carly and Mr. Shay close the door quickly. "Where's the door of Freddie's room, dad?"

"This one, sweetheart." Mr. Shay points at the door by the right side. "You want me going with you?"

"No, I'll manage," ensures Carly. She wants to talk to Freddie face to face and she wonders, how to make Mrs. Benson leaving the room. "Can you bring me something to drink?"

"Sure," Colonel says, hugs his daughter gently and walks in the opposite direction. Carly comes up to the doors of Freddie's room, knocks and comes in a moment later.

Freddie's room looks just like hers. Freddie's lying in a bed at the wall. There's also a boy who listens to music with closed eyes and a young man talking to long-haired blonde woman.

Freddie gives Carly a big smile. He's battered and his nose is swollen, but he doesn't look to have any more injuries. Mrs. Benson, who's watching over her son, looks at Carly contemptuously, what makes the girl feel crestfallen.

"Good morning, Mrs. Benson," she says quietly and uncertainly. "Hi, Freddie."

"Hello, Carly," greets the boy. "Mom, could you leave us for a while?"

"Why? To let that wench to hurt you again?" asks Mrs. Benson ominously.

"It's not her fault..." says tired Freedie. "Please, mom, let us talk."

"Well... fine," agrees Mr. Benson reluctantly. "I'll buy you some fruits and be back in seven minutes, Freddie-boy," she claims, kisses her son in the cheek and leaves.

Carly sits down at Freddie's bed. "How are you doing, Freddie-boy?" she asks, giving him a sly smile.

Freddie rolls his eyes. "I'm fine. The doc said I'll go home even today evening. How about you?"

"Me too. But it seems Sam will have to stay here few days more..." For a long moment they both are keeping silence, not knowing, what to say. They want to start a talk about the thing what's eating them, but they don't know, how. "Well... yesterday was kinda a intense day, huh?" Carly says, giving him a nervous smile.

"Yeah, many things happened..." admits Freddie.

"Spencer told me that... he... he's in the arrest right now and his lawsuit will start soon. He may get a death penatly."

"I'm not surprised." Freddie shrugs. "I hope they won't let him out, sentence him quickly and all this nightmare will end."

"You know... I feel a little bit strange with being aware that he... he'll die," says Carly uncertainly. "I know he hurt much people and et cetera, but still..."

"Carly, he deserves it," says Freddie firmly. "He killed seven innocent people and hurt much more, he admitted to everything and he's proud of it! Killing was a joy for him. This kind of people doesn't deserve another chance. Hey, Carls," he adds softly after a while, when his friend still doesn't say a word. "We're safe now, _surely_ safe. Everything's gonna be fine."

"Yes..." whispers Carly, still being not sure. "You know, Freddie, you were very brave yesterday," she says a little bit louder, giving him a smile.

"We all were brave." Freddie looks down modestly. "But, to be honest, I was afraid we would die. In one moment I was sure he had killed us... But then Spencer knocked him down. He rocked, didn't he?" He smiles slightly.

"Yes, he did." Carly's proud of her brother. At once she's aware that if he didn't plan it, that pretending being hurt, all this situation would end completely differently. She remembers her fear and anger she felt, when for those few frightening minutes she thought he hadn't been pretending... "I didn't expected him to do something like this, but I like, when people surprise me in this way," she admits with a smile.

They're keeping silence for a while and then Carly stands up. "I'll better go back to my bed," she says, "before your mom come back. I don't think she'll like it, if I stay here."

"Come on, stay, if you wanna," Freddie opposes, but Carly only spins her head.

"Hold on, Freddie," she says warmly, leans over him, kisses his cheek and leaves.

When Mrs. Benson comes back a little while later, Freddie doesn't listen to her. He's still feeling a nice pins and needles on his cheek touched by Carly's lips.

* * *

Carly and Freddie leave Harborview on evening this same day, with a recommendation to relax and a week release from school to let them to rally. Relieved Sam leaves the hospital five days later, amazed looking at her mother, who came to pick her up. Colonel Shay stays in his children's house for a week, and then he's supposed to come back to the military base. Meanwhile, Carly, Freddie and Spencer tell the policemen, what happened on Sea-Tac and soon later the lawsuit of James Pitcain starts, what makes interested all West Coast.

Carly, Freddie and Sam don't want to take part in the lawsuit and even aren't interested in it. They're sure their persecutor will get sentenced and only wait to a judgement. Meanwhile they try to cope with all experiences from last weeks - some nights they wake up, screaming, but they feel better with every day, though. When they come back to school, they become object of interest of all students and teachers, who treats them leniently, even old Ms. Briggs.

The lawsuit is surprisingly fast - Pitcain owns up to everything and doesn't show any remose. The experts find him to be mentially sick, but the court of law disagree to send him to a psychiatric treatment, arguing that he has done too much harm. After few months there is a judgement - James Pitcan, for seven murderers on the innocent teenagers, escape from the arrest, the grievous bodily harm of Samantha Puckett, minor personal injury of Carly Shay and Fredward Benson and psychological harassment aforementioned three is sentenced to the death penalty by a lethal injection.

Carly is shocked by the judgement, but Sam and Freddie seems to be satisfied. They state Pitcain deserves it and Carly agrees with them, although she's not very convinced. But then she thinks, how much harm this man did and her hesitant disappears.

The friends feel better with every day, but they know that the harm made by Pitcain, will stay with them for a long time and will impinge on their life, at least for few years. But they support each other and slowly get over it, trying to forget about the past.

Everything is back to normal.

* * *

"Nah, his execution won't be shown in TV, it's too drastic," Freddie states, when on the Saturday evening, after _iCarly_, they're sitting on the couch in 8-C apartment and watching TV. Today is the day when Pitcain is going to be executed and willy-nilly this topic appears in their talk.

"If I was an adult and could see his death, I would do it," says Sam vindictively. Her jaw is still not healed, but speaking and eating (what makes her happy the most) don't bring her pain. "I'd like to see in his eyes, when he'll be dying, as same he was looking in his victims' eyes..."

"Maybe we'll eat something?" proposes Carly nervously, wanting to change the subject. She's sick of talking about this man forever. "There are some pasta and tacos, maybe we'll do the spaghetti tacos?" She stands up.

"Cool," agrees Sam readily, standing up. They walk to the kitchen together.

Freddie, lingering a little, follows them. "Hey, where's Spencer?" he asks, when Carly's putting out the ingredients on the table.

"I don't know," the girl admits. "Maybe he's with Socko or this new girlfriend, Carrie." She shrugs. "Sam, don't eat the meat!"

"Don't stop meee," Sam chants, putting a spoon with minced meat in her mouth. "It's like stopping Freddork from standing at the door and waiting for you coming back from school."

"I don't do this anymore!" resents Freddie and a blush appears on his face.

If something didn't change in Sam, Carly and Freddie's life, that's it - Sam's still fighting with Freddie, however Carly notices that she's doing it less and less often and with less enthusiasm, and sometimes she's even _nice_ to him.

"Okay, calm down." Carly steeps between them. "Just do that food."

Few minutes later the friends are fulling the tacos with pasta and meat, chatting jauntily and Sam and Freddie's little argument wanders off into oblivion.


	13. Epilogue

**A/N: And... here we go. The Epilogue, the end of this story. Oh, dude... It came so fast. I mean, I really enjoyed writing and publishing this story. I've never expected I'd receive so many positive reviews, I thought that nobody would notice this story. But you all writing like 'cool story', 'keep updating', and 'well written'... it really made me feel like... I can't even describe it. I _really_ appreciate every published review, 'cause publishing this story was something more than just writing it. English is not my mother-language and it was (and I think it still is) very hard to me to publish something in English, even if I think I know it quite well. Of course, I know I probably made tons of mistakes - of any kind - but I learnt a lot while writing it and I hope to not make these mistakes never again.**

**The most inspiring thing for me were the reviewers, who were leaving they reviews frequently - Kyle McShade, green aura, jimbo74, iamfinethanks and The Volcanologist - reading your reviews was a pure pleasure. I really estimate a fact you've been spending some time of your lifes to type your reviews. It's really heart-warming.**

**This story is ending, but if someone wonders, will I write another multi-chap story - yes, I will. I'm working at few stories from 'iCarly' fandom right now. They are 'lighter' than 'The Throat Ripper' and I wish to publish them one day, maybe sooner than I expect. Everything depends of my inspiration, will it come or not. ;) But I really got caught in writing multi-chaps, so I think I'll do all my best to publish at least one of this kind of stories. And, of couse, there still are one-shots. Yep, I've got some ideas and I hope they'll turn in something I'll like and - what is more important - _you'll_ like. :)**

**Okay, I suppose you're all bored of my blah blah blah speech already, so there's the last thing I want to say for _all_ of you - reviewers or just readers, who never shown up - thank you. You gave me a power.**

* * *

**Epilogue**

When he's entering the execution room, he can't restrain himself from looking at the audience behind the wall from a hard glass. He wants to know, how much people came to see his death. There are wardens and some strange people sitting on the chairs - maybe there are families of people he sent on _the other side_. It flatters him that all of them came to see his death - it makes the journey to the other side even more exciting.

These people, families of those he killed. They should be grateful. He helped their loved ones in going to the better side, where they won't be supposed to worry about mundane things, he assured him to be happy. By killing, he wanted to assure people happiness and make them not to worry anymore. And that's why he's called a murderer?

But now... now he'll get to the other side by himself. He'll greet a death like an old friend, they'll walk across the bridge to this other, better side, shoulder to shoulder. He laughs in happiness and gazes at the audience for the last time.

He notices new person, who sneaks in the room. He knows him, that's this guy he almost killed. This guy, who was able to die for his sister. He surely loves her very much. He looks at him with a straight face, with a cold contempt in his eyes. But why? He didn't do anything wrong, he just wanted to make that girl happy, he wanted to make the world a better place, but he didn't tell it anybody, though...

The warden seats him at a gurney and pins his wrists and ankles by a wide, leather belts. It's not necessary, because he doesn't want to run away... not again. He's not afraid of death. On the contrary, he's expecting it, because he knows that after it he'll be happy forever. He's sure that God will take him to his Kingdom, after all, he made happy so many people, helping them to get to the _other side_. He starts to laugh again.

He doesn't feel any pain, when a moment later the poison begins to flow in his veins. He dies, laughing.


End file.
